By Chidinma Ufomadu
A five-year-old girl has died after being allegedly raped by her cousin in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
The suspect and his mother have both been arrested for the act which involved two of his young cousins who cohabited with them.
Kadijah M. Saccoh, five, and her elder sister, eight (name witheld), lived with their mum’s elder sister alongside her 18-year-old son.
The deceased parents were seperated.
Her father Congolese Saccoh who is based in the United States had been trying to get custody of the deceased Kadijah who is a citizen of the United State but all his efforts were to no avail as a judge hindered him from doing so as her mother didn’t give her consent.
The reason Kadijah and sister remained with their aunt in the West African nation.
According to reports, the suspect’s mother at different times found out about her son’s act and instead of alerting the children’s parents, resorted to home remedy.
Unfortunately, Kadijah died and the woman tried to bury her by herself.
According to reports, the father of the children called to check on his children but she kept changing the story and said Kadijah was sleeping then later called the father to say that Kadijah was hit by a car and died.
Soon after, she asked for permission to bury Kadijah but the father insisted on carrying out an autopsy to ascertain the cause of the death.
The result, however, revealed that the deceased was raped severally and the father being suspicious also requested for the late child’s elder sister to be taken for test which revealed that she too was molested.
This led to the arrest of the children’s aunt and her son and people are seeking for justice as a series of protests are being carried out on the streets of Sierra Leone.
A petition has been written in that regard and all victims across the world.
A GoFundMe account has been created in Kadijah’s name and reports claim it was majorly to give a proper burial and her sister’s upkeepm
A target of $10,000 was set and as at Tuesday, a total of over $4,842 have been raised.
If it surpasses $10,000, it would be used for the creation of a foundation to protect young girls from being sexually assaulted and to improve the healthcare and justice system of Sierra Leone.
Justice is also being sought for Kadijah on Twitter as the case trends on different hashtags. #justiceforKadijah #justiceforkadijahsaccoh.
