The correlation between war, conflict, and human trafficking is all too apparent in many parts of the world. Sandra Morgan, the Director of the Global Center for Women & Justice and Dave Stachowiak, one of the Center’s board members, welcome Esther & Camille Ntoto from Africa New Day to discuss how human trafficking shows up in their work in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Esther and Camille are both graduates of Vanguard University and have devoted their lives to develop a network of opportunities that empowers communities, and teaches current and future leaders how to approach the problems of the local population.

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Dave [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 45. This week’s topic: War, Conflict, and Human Trafficking. Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak, and this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. Well, thank you so much for joining us for our first episode of the year. And if you are tuning in for the very first time, you are in for a very special show to kick off the new year. We have had the opportunity to sit down with two very special guests on this episode. Dear friends of the Global Center for Women of Justice and friends of Sandie and I had the opportunity to meet them just a few weeks ago when they were out here in Southern California. And our guests on this week’s show are Esther and Camille Ntoto, and they are going to be talking about their experience and their work in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is a very, very difficult place to be doing work in these areas right now. And I want to jump right into the interview that Sandie had with them just a couple of weeks ago. And so here is our interview with Esther and Camille Ntoto.

Sandie [00:01:41] I am very excited to have guests in the studio with us today that are Vanguard alums. Esther and Camille Ntoto attended Vanguard University, but they are originally Congolese and eventually through a series of God moments ended up back in one of the most desperate areas of global human trafficking on our planet, right in the heart of Africa, right in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Even while they’ve been here visiting in Orange County, their own city was under siege by rebels. They have lived under the threat of violence every single day and have done amazing work there. So we’re going to talk to them today about the relationship of war and conflict to human trafficking. Now, they could tell us a lot of other things, but we’re going to try to stay on track with that. So Esther and Camille, welcome.

Camille [00:02:47]  Thank you.

Esther [00:02:47] Thank you.

Sandie [00:02:49] I think what I’d like to hear from you is what kind of human trafficking have you identified in your area there in Congo?

Camille [00:02:59] Well, we need to say first that Congo has been hit by war. It’s been 16 years. Six million people have died, and it’s also been called the rape capital of the world, where one out of three women has been raped. And in that kind of context, we can only imagine that some of the rebel forces, the militia groups and the people that are involved in the confrontations would use sex trafficking as a means of retaining power and control. And initially, when they used the sexual violence, it was called a weapon of war that they were using, and the goal was to humiliate, annihilate and have control over the group that they were actually fighting. And so that has continued, whereas children now are involved where groups actually take children from another tribe, ethnic group or another village, just to be able to show the people in that village that they have actually a power over them. And the women are used as sex slaves because not only do they use them as labor force, but as sex slaves, because you know, it’s again one way of saying, OK, in that particular group that we’ve taken over, well we control not only their ability to sustain themselves as a group, but we are showing them that we are more powerful and stronger than them. And so it is sad to say and it’s sad to experience, but there is no help for these people because the government is not coming to help them with laws and enforcing those laws. You don’t have groups that are strong enough to be able to go and deliver them and set them free. And in many cases it’s just acceptable and people just look the other way because they think that this is something that we cannot solve. These people have weapons, they have ammunition. They do this with some kind of power and control that somehow nobody’s able to do something about it.

Esther [00:05:03] There’s also, I can add, beside the phenomenon of a child soldier. We also have in child labor that young girls and boys are taken from villages ...