Across the Democratic Republic of Congo, scores of political opposition members and activists are in detention for participating in peaceful demonstrations, speaking out against election delays, or criticizing government policies. Many are held in secret detention without charge or access to family or lawyers. Others have been put on trial on trumped-up charges. Many suffer regular beatings and horrendous living conditions, which go largely unnoticed by the outside world.

In a new series, Human Rights Watch interviews detainees, and asks family members about their loved ones behind bars, showing us the personal tragedy of arbitrary arrest and detention and the tremendous impact on family and friends.

Sephora Astride Bidwaya is a 25-year-old political activist who has been in prison in the eastern city of Goma for over five months. A law graduate from the University of Goma, Sephora became politically active at 18, when she joined the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) opposition party and later became the vice-president of the party’s youth wing in Goma, in charge of culture and gender issues. Security forces arrested her on December 19, 2016, with 11 other opposition party members, during a peaceful protest against President Joseph Kabila’s decision to stay in power past his constitutionally-mandated two-term limit, which ended that day.

Bidwaya’s husband, Blaise Mulume Vuninka, told Human Rights Watch about the day his wife was arrested:

On December 19, I was arrested at work. I had no idea why I was being detained. Only three days later, I was informed that my wife had also been arrested on December 19 for carrying a red card [waved by protesters as a symbol that Kabila’s time in power was up]. They told me I was also arrested because of my wife’s political work. Then on December 26, they finally released me.

Once out of detention, Vuninka was informed that the police transferred his wife from the police holding cell to the prosecutor’s office in Goma:

Three police officers dragged my wife by her pants. They kicked her with their boots in her stomach and back. To force her into the van, they almost threw her in. While the others beat her, a colonel insulted her, saying: “You go there [to the UDPS] to find yourself men. You’re a dirty whore! You’ll get what you deserve and regret that you went out on the street that day [to protest].” I think that these beatings are the main cause for all her current health issues. When I think about it, it brings tears to my eyes.

Bidwaya was later transferred to Munzenze central prison in Goma, where she is still detained. Vuninka described his wife’s worsening health conditions:

Two months before she was arrested, Sephora had to have surgery and we lost our first baby. Her wounds had not yet healed by the time she was arrested, and the beatings caused her intense pain. She also suffers from asthma. In prison, she still faints sometimes. Just on the night of May 17, she fainted five times. … She has to sleep on the ground. She doesn’t have drinking water, and the toilets are dirty.

Bidwaya and the other 11 detained protesters were charged with “insulting the head of state,” but the trial has yet to start because of contested procedural issues.

Vuninka said:

I am asking myself when this will end. I need my wife. The only thing she did was to hold a little red card and walk down the street with the others. She doesn’t deserve to go through all this because of such a small thing.

During a meeting in Kinshasa with activists from the youth movement LUCHA (Struggle for Change) on May 25, Congo’s human rights minister, Marie Ange Mushobekwa, said that Bidwaya would soon be released. Let’s hope she’s right.