US election: African asylum seekers in limbo

For the growing number of African asylum seekers and economic migrants in the US, the upcoming presidential election could reshape their entire future.

“We deserve safety,” says Dr Yves Kaduli, a 38-year-old asylum seeker from the Democratic Republic of Congo who lives in the US.

“I have a dream that I will defend those that are persecuted,” he adds in a BBC interview.

Dr Kaduli says that in 2014, he fled eastern DR Congo – which has been wracked by more than three decades of conflict – after being kidnapped and tortured.

He had been working as a doctor at Cifunzi Hospital in Kalonge town and saw the effects of the conflict up-close.

“Women were raped. I saw it. I felt it in my body,” he tells the BBC.

Dr Kaduli says that horrified at the civilian casualties, he and many of his colleagues including Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr Denis Mukwege, participated in protests against the killings and rapes by armed groups, criticising then-President Joseph Kabila’s government for its failure to guarantee the safety of people.

The medic says this led to him being targeted by unknown men.

“They came, they took me and another colleague by force during our night shift,” Dr Kaduli recalls, adding that they were then taken to a makeshift camp in a nearby forest where they were beaten, tortured and threatened with death.

Dr Kaduli says that after being held for a day he managed to escape and decided he had to get out.

Leaving his mother and young son behind, Dr Kaduli says he began what would be a five-year journey, passing first through neighbouring Rwanda, then flying to Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua and finally arriving at the US-Mexico border in 2019.