Despite suffering from severe headaches and asthma and being held in “revolting” conditions, activist Sephora Astride Bidwaya remains defiant after more than six months in a Goma prison, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

“I keep telling myself that, if one day I’m able to serve this country, I will have many ideas about what needs to be fixed,” she told us from Goma’s Munzenze prison. “I will never stop demanding justice for my friends and me.”

Security forces arrested Bidwaya, 25, on December 19, 2016, along 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.

A law graduate from the University of Goma, Bidwaya 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.

Bidwaya’s husband, Blaise Mulume Vuninka, told us she had been beaten and detained simply for holding a red card, held by protesters to symbolize that Kabila’s time in power was up.

Bidwaya told us how her health is rapidly deteriorating. She continues to suffer from severe headaches, and several rashes on her head have led to a loss of hair. Bidwaya’s asthma and pain related to her miscarriage in October are making the situation even worse, and she hasn’t gotten the medicine she needs to relieve the pain.

Despite the “revolting” situation at Goma’s Munzenze prison, Bidwaya told us that she’s trying “to stay positive”:

The environment here makes it really difficult to go on, but I need to do the best that I can. Over 40 women are detained here and 14 children. Most of the children suffer from diarrhea. They distribute food to us – just a large bowl of beans – once every other week. Most people here sleep on the floor. The situation is really appalling…We should be released immediately because we haven’t committed any crimes…We were only calling for the respect of the constitution, which is a legitimate thing!

Across the Democratic Republic of Congo, dozens of political opposition members and activists are in detention for participating in peaceful demonstrations, speaking out against election delays, or criticizing government policies. Many have been 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 have received little international attention.