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Article History

Received: 17 April 2020

Accepted: 18 June 2021

First Online: 10 July 2021

Declarations

:

: The Ethics Committee of the Catholic University of Bukavu in the DRC approved the main research proposal in 2016 (N° UCB/CIES/NC/04/2016).Each individual provided verbal and written informed consent before the beginning of data collection. Additionally, for participants under the age of 18 years old, we searched for written consent from a parent or legal tutor. Ideally, the head of the household was the criteria to be included. However, in his absence and presence of an under 18 years, one among the surveyors had to go meet the head of the parent/legal tutor (guardian). If the head of the family (parent or legal tutor) said he/she would not be available, formal consent was obtained from him/her to interview the young person as his/her representative. All consent procedures including obtaining additional formal consent from parent/tutor for the under 18 years were approved by the Ethics Committee of the Catholic University of Bukavu. All consent forms were translated into the local language.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.