Gold panners, traders, prostitutes: at nightfall, hundreds of them crowd into the gloomy bars of Kamituga, a mining town in South Kivu, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
"Life in Kamituga encourages sin," says Bitama Sebuhuni, a gold prospector hospitalized after contracting MPOX during unprotected sex.
He says he has given in to "the mentality of the milieu": "You can arrive here as a pastor, once you are here, you become like everyone else," warns the young man.
Kamituga, known for its gold mines, is the starting point of the epidemic which has hit the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since September, according to health authorities.
The deposits abandoned by Belgian companies in the 1990s attracted a crowd of artisanal miners and entrepreneurs of all kinds.
Today, there are some 300,000 inhabitants, double that number according to local estimates, walking the crowded streets of the city centre.
The buildings inherited from the colonial era have disappeared under a layer of dust and a jumble of makeshift buildings. Gold buying offices, gold panning equipment and, above all, nightclubs and bars for "the atmosphere" after a hard day's work in the mines.
"When we talk about the atmosphere, we talk about women, prostitutes and alcohol," Bitama says. "I used to sleep with prostitutes, like that, without control, without protection."
– Night clubs –
Now the days seem long for Bitama in the MPOX isolation center built in Kamituga Hospital, a verdant brick complex and a rare space spared from the anarchy of the city center.
"Some 20% of our patients are contaminated by sexual transmission and the condom does not protect," explains Doctor Dally Muamba Kambaji, of the NGO Alima.
Doctors at the local hospital were the first to be confronted with the resurgence of MPOX in September 2023.
"We noticed unusual skin lesions on the manager of a nightclub," recalls Dr. James Wakilonga Zanguilwa.
"When we noticed that some free women in the same box began to develop similar lesions, we raised the alarm," he continues.
The nightclub "Mambegeti" has since closed its doors but left its name to the disease. In Kamituga, prostitutes were the main vector for the spread of "Mambegeti", the local nickname for mpox.
The "free women" roam the streets and bars. They have their own neighborhoods and even an "association." Its members, who come from all over the region or neighboring countries, meet in a bar perched on the upper floor of a wooden house, at the end of a maze of alleys.
Called "The Wise Men's Corner", the establishment welcomes gold prospectors, traders and even a Congolese intelligence agent who monitors the comings and goings.
Pimping
There are about ten of them sitting on shabby sofas around a table filled with lukewarm beers.
With a blonde wig tucked under a scarf, generous makeup, false eyelashes and large gold earrings, Nicole Mubukwa does not hesitate to speak in front of the camera, in a region where prostitution is nevertheless considered taboo.
A little publicity doesn't hurt, according to the person concerned. Because MPOX has slowed down activity.
"Since the appearance of this disease, customers have become rare," laments Nicole.
"I was infected without knowing it and it was difficult for me because I was unable to sleep with a man," remembers Alice, another member of the "association."
According to them, many infected women do not say anything about their condition, to avoid a loss of income: "It's the same as with AIDS, everyone hides," she says.
Alice earns between 3,000 and 10,000 Congolese francs (between about $1 and $3.50) each time she goes. She says she came from Bukavu, the provincial capital, where wages are lower. And she claims to have arrived of her own free will, under the watchful and uncomfortable eye of the pimp mother, sitting nearby.
But at Kamituga hospital, another prostitute, who wishes to remain anonymous, says pimping rings are trapping some young women by promising them a job as a waitress in town and a free trip, before demanding that they repay the transport money.
Despite the pitiful state of National Road 2 which links Kamituga to the provincial capital, Bukavu, 180 kilometres away, the comings and goings of populations have spread the virus throughout the province of South Kivu, which has become the epicenter of the epidemic.
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