Sierra Leone Sexµal Violence: What Difference Did The National Emergency Make?

[Sugar Cookie]

In the city of Makeni, a three-hour drive east of Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, a young mother sits outside her home with her three-year-old daughter.

Anita, which is not her real name, describes the day in June 2023 when she found her toddler with blood dripping from her nappy.

"I worked for this woman, and she gave me an errand that Saturday morning to go to the market," she says, explaining that she then left her child with her employer and her 22-year-old son.

"He took my child, he said, to buy sweets and biscuits for her. It was a lie."

When she got back, she realised her daughter was missing. After searching for her for some time, they were reunited but the 22-year-old mother could see that the toddler was bleeding. She took her to the hospital and after two rounds of stitches, it was confirmed she had been raped.

"The nurses began checking the child, and they said: 'Oh my God, what has this man done to this child?' The doctor who was treating my child even cried."

Anita went to the police but the man fled and a year on the police have not been able to find him.

"The president created a law so that whoever rapes children, should be arrested and sent to jail," she says, angry that nothing appears to have been done.

She is referring to a tougher sexµal offences law created five years ago after President Maada Bio declared the emergency over rape.

The laws are in place but the authorities lack the resources to deal with the issue

It followed protests in December 2018 when hundreds of people wearing white T-shirts emblazoned with the words "Hands off our girls" marched through Freetown.

News of another child rape had shocked the nation - a five-year-old girl who was left paralysed from the waist down. It was reported at the time that cases of sexµal violence had almost doubled within a year, a third involving children. Sierra Leoneans had had enough.

The four-month long state of emergency from February 2019 allowed the president to divert state resources into tackling sexµal violence.

An updated sexµal Offences Act brought in stricter penalties for sexµal assault.

Rape sentences were increased to a minimum of 15 years, or life if it involved a child. A sexµal Offences Model Court to fast-track trials was created in Freetown the following year.

There appears to have been some progress - reported cases of sexµal and gender-based violence have gone down by almost 17%, from just over 12,000 in 2018 to just over 10,000 in 2023, according to police statistics.

Creating increased awareness and new structures is one thing, but making sure that people, like Anita's daughter, get justice is another.

The Rainbo Initiative is a national charity that works with survivors of sexµal violence. It says that in 2022 just 5% of the 2,705 cases it handled made it to the High Court.

One of the issues is the resources available to those who are supposed to enforce the law.

At the police station in Makeni where Anita reported her daughter's rape, Assnt Supt Abu Bakarr Kanu who leads the Family Support Unit (FSU) says they get around four cases of child sexµal assault each week.

Please continue reading at link and watch the video above.

Men are blaming the women for how they dress.

 

[cubby]

Men are blaming the women for how they dress.

I guess the nappies on the babies are just too sexy.

 

[BuffettGirl]

OK, who South Africa'd Sierra Leone?

 

[Blunderbuss Firozabad]

"The four-month long state of emergency from February 2019 allowed the president to divert state resources into tackling sexµal violence."

Sentences increased, protests, fast tracking of trials, incidents down 17%.
Sounds like a nation that's pro-active.


Men all over the woŕld blame women for what they were wearing. So do women.

https://www.dreamindemon.com/community/threads/pastor-apologizes-for-saying-he-would-set-rapist-free-if-victim-is-wearing-shorts.143514/

Age 11, 2010 in Cleveland,Texas after being gang raped

2010 gang rapes in Cleveland, Texas - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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