Cases of rape are obvious in Senegal. To deter the executioners, the State has toughened the sanctions, with the adoption of the law criminalizing rape and pedophilia. Despite these draconian measures, rapes, some more heinous than others, are legion in the country.
January 1, 2024. Malika, in the Dakar suburbs, is dismayed and terrified. This once peaceful corner gives the air of a dark desert inhabited by sorrow. The rape followed by the murder of Diary Sow, a 12-year-old girl, the day before, plunged this populous district of Keur Massar into pain and sadness. The alarmed populations moan with pain and tears. Malika remains groggy. The tragic loss of this child who left in the prime of life plunges the inhabitants of this locality into bitterness. It was on the night of December 31, 2024 to January 1, 2025 that the tragedy occurred. While the people of Dakar celebrated the New Year with fireworks, Malika was enveloped by a sinister shadow born from a rape followed by murder.
According to the first elements of the investigation opened by the gendarmerie, the victim was found dead, his lifeless body placed in the bathroom of a neighboring compound. The investigation reveals that this heinous crime is a rape gone wrong. The alleged perpetrator, a neighbor, has already admitted the facts to investigators. This rape is the umpteenth that has plunged the country into turmoil and dismay. Already, in December 2024, another case of rape followed by pregnancy hit the headlines in Joal-Fadiouth, a commune in the department of Mbour, located 100 km south of Dakar. Awa Barry (a pseudonym), a 9-year-old girl, became pregnant after being abused by her Koranic master. This emblematic case of child abuse committed in a religious environment was revealed during a television program in November 2024.
This story stunned the Senegalese and brought back into focus the numerous cases of rape which abound in religious circles where this subject was considered taboo. In this case, it was Awa Barry who denounced the actions of her teacher Aliou S., after four months of ordeal. Enrolled in Cm2 class, she followed private Koranic lessons with this teacher, in his forties, widower and father of “grown-up children”. A cleric implicated in Touba Through his religious knowledge, he had made a name for himself in the neighborhood and almost everyone went to learn the Koran at his home. But it was at the beginning of November that the myth fell like a house of cards. After feeling unwell, an ultrasound reveals that Awa Barry is pregnant.
Faced with her parents, she collapses and reveals the abuse imposed by her master for months. “At the end of the private lessons, he asked her to stay to help him do certain household chores. Then, he made him drink water that he said was blessed to improve the child’s memory. Once drugged, he raped her,” reported Commander-Major Diabang of the Joal-Fadiouth gendarmerie where the victim’s family had filed a complaint. In Touba, 27 young girls had accused their Koranic master, related to a powerful maraboutic family, of repeated rapes. The accused, a man named Serigne Khadim Mbacké, has since been imprisoned awaiting his trial.
It was after several weeks on the run that the alleged culprit presented himself to the Touba police. Moreover, a police official informed that the alleged rapist “was arrested after reporting himself to the police. After an interrogation, he was placed at the disposal of the gendarmerie. He was on the run.”
This affair came to light following a complaint from victims, “deemed minors” who had produced medical certificates. The Koranic school, where teachings about Islam were given, was closed, according to the local press, indicating that the affair broke out when one of the girls refused to return to school because the Koranic master “had sexual relations with her and all the other girls”. The irony is that this case of repeated rapes was revealed a few days before the end of Ramadan 2023.
The Sun
