By Ishmael Bayoh, Information Attaché,
Sierra Leone Embasssy Dakar, Senegal
Six Sierra Leonean girls have been rescued from sex traffickers in Dakar and now in the custody of the Sierra Leone Embassy in Dakar awaiting repatriation.
The youngest victim is 14 years.
These girls were trafficked by their aunt, who is resident in Dakar, on the pretext of providing them employment in a restaurant. It turned out that the girls were to do prostitution.
The girls were residing at Mile 4, Foo Foo Water Junction, Waterloo, with three of them going to school and the eldest doing petty trading.
Explaining their ordeal, Hawanatu Sesay, 22, said they were told by their aunt, Isatu Deen whom they were residing with in Freetown, that her sister Hafsatu Leigh, who is residing in Dakar, had informed her that the woman she was working for in Senegal had asked her to get six girls for them to be employed in a Sierra Leonean restaurant.
These girls were selected, and national identity cards were prepared for them to travel to Senegal. The national ID cards that were prepared for them were fake.
Hafsatu Leigh had already arranged with a driver to pick up the girls from Conakry, Guinea.
They left Freetown through Conakry on October 5, 2023, by road to Dakar. “When we reached Senegal on the 9th October, we called her on this number +2217646096 and the driver took us to a place called Diamniado where they met our aunty Hafsatu. She told us that she was known as Adama in Senegal and not Hafsatu.”
Hawanatu explained that when they were taken home by Isatu, now known in Senegal as Adama, she introduced them to another woman they met at home. “After we had bath and eaten, they took away our mobile phones and all the papers where we had written down some telephone numbers.”
She said that the woman they had met asked them whether they knew why they were brought to Senegal. “We responded that we were to work in a Sierra Leonean restaurant.”
Hawanatu said that with shock the woman told them that they were brought to Senegal do prostitution. “I did not understand that word, so I asked what it was? Then she said ‘na for cam do raray gal woke’ (to do prostitution),” she said.
At that stage, the girls said they all declined that they would not do that.
Whilst they were on that, they explained that six other women arrived at the scene. “Adama introduced us to them as our madams, and they told us that they had come to take each one of us to start doing prostitution that same day. Some of the girls began crying, and Adama told the madams to wait till the following day as we were tired after over four days journey.”
Hawanatu narrated, “We heard the madams and Adama quarrelling, that was not what they bargained for. Adama locked us in a room and told us to rest till the sun sets, then we will go out somewhere to swear an oath that we will never tell anyone why we were brought to Senegal.”.
She said that in the room, the 16-year-old girl told the rest to pray on the water they were drinking and sprinkled it around to avert ill luck when they were to escape. “God answered our prayers, and on the 9th October, we escaped after I had cried to Adama that my head was aching and needed paracetamol. So, she opened the door and left it unlocked. “
How the victims get to the Embassy
Hawanatu said when they were coming to Senegal, they met a Sierra Leonean man in the bus named Augustine, and they shared contacts. “I had written his number on a small piece of paper and put it in the corner of my bag. So, when we had escaped and had gone far away, I searched for his number and called him. “
Augustine then got in touch with a Sierra Leonean woman named Mimi Sharp and told her about the situation. Both Augustine and Mimi informed the Sierra Leone Ambassador, H.E Alhaji Brima Elvis Koroma, who told them to bring the girls to the Sierra Leone Embassy on October 19, 2023.
Their arrival at the embassy coincided with the visit of the Minister of Information and Civic Education Chernor Bah, who said it was a serious issue that needed lots of civic education.
The girls were placed in safe lodging on the 19th of October, as the embassy is collaborating with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for their repatriation.
Ambassador Koroma had informed the Senegalese law enforcement authorities about the incident. He is also scheduled to inform Sierra Leoneans during his community outreach activities to desist from and identify those involved in trafficking in persons