“He pushed me to his bed, removed my pants and sexually penetrated me.”
Those were the words of an eleven-year-old girl, narrating her ordeal of how she was raped by a 32-year-old man.
Recounting how it happened, the eleven-year-old said: “My mother sent me to fetch water at a nearby stream, and on my way, I met the man who sexually abused me. He asked me if my mum gave me money to pay for the water I was going to fetch, and I told him no. On that note, he told me to meet him at his residence to collect the sum of Le 1,000 to pay for the water. I went to his house, stood on the door, but he said I must get in. When I went into his single room apartment, he pushed me to his bed, removed my pants and sexually penetrated me. Since that time, he has been sexually penetrating me on several occasions, including having anal intercourse that left me in severe pain and injury.”
In reply to a request for information filed under the Right to Access Information (RAI) Act, the Sierra Leone Police (SLP) Family Support Unit (FSU) detailed that, from January 2020 through September 2020, there were a total of 2,685 sexual offence cases reported to police nationwide. The highest number of reported cases involved assaults against individuals between the ages of 12 to 17 years old.
Sierra Leone’s Sexual Offences Amended Act 2019 describes sexual penetration as any act which causes the penetration to any extent of the vagina, anus, or mouth of a person by the penis or other part of the body of another person or by an object. The act also states that persons who engage in any act of sexual penetration with a child – legally defined as any person below the age of 18 – commits an offence, and is liable on conviction to a term of imprisonment not exceeding fifteen years.
The eleven-year-old girl also said that she was afraid of telling her parents about the sexual assault she was experiencing, because the accused had threatened to kill her. She continued that her mother found out about the incidents because her injuries were causing her to walk abnormally – noticing this, her mother took her to the hospital where a medical professional found that she had been sexually penetrated.
The police RAI reply also stated that, during the three-year period between 2017 and 2019, a total of 9,569 cases of sexual offence were recorded from all police divisions. Offences included in this number range from assault with intent to ravish, to incest, to meeting a child for sexual purpose, rape, sexual penetration, sexual harassment, sexual touching, sodomy, etc. Also, from the information provided, it is clear that, from 2017 to 2019, the total number of sexual offences reported to the FSU nation-wide went up each year – as demonstrated in the chart below.
Number of Sexual Offences Reported to SLP’s Family Support Unit by Year
| Jan – Dec 2017 | Jan – Dec 2018 | Jan – Dec 2019 |
| 2,854 | 3,087 | 3,628 |
Although final numbers of sexual offences reported during the 2020 calendar year are not yet available, with 2,685 cases reported in the first nine months of the year alone, it seems feasible that the overall number of reported cases this year could be roughly as high as those reported in 2019, if not higher.
Furthermore, between the months of January and September 2020, a total of 443 sexual offence cases were charged to court – with 63 cases closed, 421 kept in view, and 1,758 still under investigation, according to the SLP’s Family Support Unit.
To explore this matter further, an RAI request for information was also submitted to the Rainbow Initiative – a local non-governmental organisation (NGO) that provides medical, shelter and psycho-social support for survivors of sexual assaults and gender-based violence through its network of centres across the country.
In response to the request for information, the Rainbow Initiative stated that, from January 2017 to October –2020, a total of 11,930 sexual assaults and 773 physical assaults were recorded at their centres nation-wide.
According to data published on the organization’s website, in 2019 alone there were at least 3,695 cases of sexual assault and 196 cases of physical assault reported to Rainbow Initiative Centres across Sierra Leone – indicating even more cases than were officially reported to police the same year, in addition to cases that likely occurred, but were not reported to either authority (and are therefore not included in any of these numbers).
Alfred Bob Sellu, Database Clerk at the FSU, CID Headquarters, in his organization’s RAI reply, states that since the Presidential Proclamation in March 2019, a total of 470 new Sexual Penetration and Rape Cases have been prosecuted.
He added that, between March 2019 and September 2020, the Courts nationwide have recorded a total of 152 convictions for sexual penetration and rape cases. This number includes 64 convictions between March 2019 and June 2020, with another 88 convictions taking place between July 2020 and September 2020, under the newly established Sexual Offences Model Court (SOMC).
He added that one of the major challenges faced by the FSU is that many times cases are compromised when families negotiate outside of court with the accused person(s), even after they would have made an official report. He said such acts cause problems in the FSU data because complainants do not relay the message back to the Police, so that the matter could be struck off the category of cases titled ‘under investigation matters.’
As part of the research for this story, an RAI request for information was also submitted to the Judiciary for additional data on the sexual gender-based violence cases that have been tried since the COVID-19 pandemic began – but to date, no response has been received.
To further raise awareness and advocate for survivors and victims of rape and sexual penetration, civil society organizations Sierra Leone initiated the ‘Black Tuesday Movement’ two years ago. This movement involves activists and people against sexual penetration putting on black clothes and showcasing messages on placards against sexual violence, while marching on various streets in the country on selected Tuesdays.
Josephine Kamara works for ‘Purposeful’, one of the partners of the movement. She says that, despite increased efforts, there remains a serious issue of rape and sexual penetration in the country – referring to a recent case involving a five-year-old who was sexually penetrated. Although Kamara says the movement made sure the child was taken to India to receive medical support, she unfortunately remains physically paralyzed to date.
Kamara said that, the advocacy on rape and sexual penetration has not ended – and the Movement calls on the government to provide further necessary support for survivors across the country.
By Isabella Cassell
18/12/2020. ISSUE NO: 7968