Congolese Amputee Helps War Victims Regain Mobility with Prosthetic Limbs

Original story By Arlette Bashizi and Djaffar Al-Katanty (Reutres)
Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo

A Congolese woman who lost her leg in a rebel bomb attack more than a decade ago is now fitting prosthetic limbs for other victims of the country’s long-running conflict.

Wivine Kavira Mukata, 28, works at the Shirika la Umoja orthopedic centre in Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where she prepares moulds for artificial limbs. On 20 August 2025, she was seen assisting 17-year-old patient Ajuamungu Kikoba.

Ms Mukata’s own ordeal began in February 2014, when a bomb exploded at her family home in Beni, North Kivu province. The attack, which Congolese authorities blamed on Ugandan rebels, injured her parents and led to the amputation of her left leg just above the knee.

She was a teenager at the time. A photograph from her recovery period, taken 10 years ago, shows her in a wheelchair with her leg in a white plaster cast.

Treatment at the Shirika la Umoja centre in Goma, followed by a prosthetic fitting at a facility in Bukavu, enabled her to walk again and inspired her career in prosthetics.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has endured decades of armed conflict in its mineral-rich east, involving multiple rebel groups and government forces. Civilians, including children, are frequently caught in the violence, suffering injuries that require amputations.

Centres like Shirika la Umoja provide essential rehabilitation services in a region where healthcare remains severely strained by insecurity and resource shortages.

Ms Mukata’s work highlights the resilience of survivors amid ongoing instability in North Kivu, where clashes between the M23 rebel group and Congolese forces have displaced hundreds of thousands in recent years.

Filed: 28 October 2025, 08:00 GMT
Photography: Arlette Bashizi / Reuters