Family members, neighbors, friends and acquaintances paid a last tribute to little daughter Elonga, buried on October 15, 2019, two weeks after her death following a clandestine abortion.

At 14, it is with all her innocence that this minor was pushed by her 22-year-old boyfriend, a certain Héritier, to take pills to stop her pregnancy. Héritier has been sentenced to the Kinshasa / Kinkole High Court for 15 years in prison and a fine of 10 million Congolese francs for "minor rape and criminal abortion", after a fair hearing last week at the Menkao market.

The problem of abortions in the DRC is very worrying. According to the second Demographic Health Survey (DHS 2013-2014), illegal abortion is the third leading cause of maternal mortality in the DRC.
Adolescent girls are particularly affected by this public health problem.

According to the same studies, 65% of girls have their first sexual intercourse before the age of 18. 27% of all pregnancies come from teenagers aged 15 to 19 who have already had a live birth. These pregnancies very often result in clandestine abortions under high-risk conditions and by unskilled people.


The ignorance of contraceptive methods by adolescent girls and the lack of access to suitable safe abortion care favor this catastrophic situation in the DRC, especially in rural areas.
And yet, the Congolese legal framework has evolved with the effective implementation since April 2018 of Article 14, paragraph 2, point C of the Maputo Protocol which authorizes medical abortion "in case of sexual assault, rape, incest and when the pregnancy endangers the mental and physical health of the mother or the life of the mother or foetus".

Victim of rape, according to the sentence of the Kinshasa / Kinkole TGI, little Elonga would not be dead if she knew that she was legally entitled to request a safe abortion in a qualified health center, accompanied by her parents.


(CKS/Yes)