A woman and her son have been arrested after the son raped his two young cousins, leading to the death of one of the sisters named Kadijah Saccoh.
5-year-old Kadijah and her 8-year-old older sister were living with their aunt (sister to Kadijah’s mum) and her son in Freetown, Sierra Leone, as a result of their parents who live apart.
The girls also live with their aunt because a court order prevented their father, Congolese Saccoh, who lives in the U.S. from processing American citizenship for Kadijah, as her mother was not in support.
Unfortunately, the aunt’s son began raping Kadijah and her older sister.
Reports alleged that when the aunt found out her son had raped Kadijah’s sister, she hid the incident from the children’s parents and treated the girl herself.
Her son then went ahead to rape Kadijah, who she also treated herself, without getting proper medical attention for the injured girls.
Unfortunately, Kadijah died and the aunt tried to bury her hurriedly, without her parents being aware.
According to reports, the aunt later informed Kadijah’s father about the death, asking permission to bury the child.
However, Saccoh demanded to know the cause of death, asking his family to carry out a postmortem test on the corpse.
The postmortem result showed that the girl was raped multiple times, which led to the father to also request that a test be done on his older daughter and it showed that she had been raped too.
The aunt and her son have both been arrested and people are seeking justice for Kadijah with the hashtags #JusticeForKadijahSaccoh and #JusticeForKadijah being in use on social media.
On Monday, June 22, some celebrities joined other residents of the country to demand justice for the deceased and her sister.
Some women also took to the streets, clad in black demanding justice.
Sierra Leone’s Women in the Media organization wrote in a press release:
As a female media organization we are deeply saddened and we therefore condemn this act. We are calling on all authorities concerned to speedily launch an investigation into the matter and ensure the perpetrator(s) is brought to justice.
See some photos of protesters below;
