The gunfire returned before dawn, cracking through the thick forest where Salima, then 17, had been held for months.
The teenager crouched low in the underbrush, her heart hammering, listening as M23 rebels traded fire with Congolese troops and a government-aligned militia.
When a shell exploded nearby that January morning, she and another captive girl seized the one chance they had: they ran.
Their escape carried them 20 kilometers across bare earth and sharp rock to a sprawling displacement camp outside Goma.
But even now, nearly a year later, Salima lives in hiding in rebel-held territory – a survivor of sexual violence, still carrying the weight of nearly eight months under the control of M23 combatants.
