By Amin Kef Sesay
The five (5) year old Sierra Leonean child, Kadijah Saccoh, who was allegedly raped and murdered, has now been handed over to the late girl’s father by the State. She will be laid to rest on the 17th January 2021 in Freetown, according to family sources. The family members are therefore extending invitation to all Sierra Leoneans, with daughters, to attend the funeral stating that free T-Shirts will be given out. According to them, there is the need to send a message to rapists that if they rape and murder children then the country will come after them.
Kadijah Saccoh was born on the 29th March 2015 and was murdered on the 17th June 2021. Tentatively, the location where people should converge is the National Stadium Parking Lot but if any changes are made the family members stated that they will let the public know. They expressed thanks to the President and the First Lady for the efforts they have been making to combat rape.
It will be recalled that the case of 5-year-old Kadijah Saccoh, who was raped and killed in June, allegedly by a family member in Sierra Leone, produced outrage and protests and escalated the debate about how to stop the crisis of rape and ongoing violence against women.
“My daughter’s story is very, very sad because in my country, rape has become acceptable in a family setting,” Kadijah’s father, Abubakarr Saccoh said in an interview.
President Julius Maada Bio in 2019 declared rape and sexual violence a national emergency. At the time, the country had more than 8,500 reported cases of sexual and gender-based violence per year, but observers believe thousands of additional cases go unreported.
“Each month, hundreds of cases of rape and sexual assaults are being reported in this country. These despicable crimes of sexual violence are being committed against our women, children and even babies,” Bio said during a news conference in Freetown in February 2019. “Some of the fatalities are as young as 3 months old. Seventy percent of survivors of this traumatic experience are under the age [of] 15.”
Since then, the country has made strides, including strengthening its Sexual Offenses Act to allow for a maximum punishment of life in prison for someone who rapes a child. It also created a Sexual Offenses Division of the High Court to make sure sexual assault cases are prosecuted swiftly.
Still, advocates say the problem persists.
Since the declaration by the president, the country established a call center to report sexual crimes, but lawyers representing clients who have suffered gender-based violence (GBV) say the center also should be open for other forms of violence against girls and women, such as domestic abuse.
Four people, including Kadijah’s cousin, who was suspected of committing the crime, are still standing trial in a court of law. If convicted of rape of a minor, the perpetrators could face life in prison following legislation introduced last year.
The matter has now been committed to the High Court.
