Fleeing Isn’t a Choice—It’s Survival

I didn’t choose to flee my country—I was forced to.

Imagine going to bed each night with the fear that your village might be burned before morning. That fear was my reality growing up in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where I was born and raised until I was eighteen. By 2007, violence and persecution had become the norm. Armed groups, political instability, and deep-rooted ethnic tensions fueled widespread atrocities. Torture, displacement, and fear were no longer isolated. They reached every part of society, leaving communities like mine with no safe place to turn.