According to information collected by L’Observateur, the story took shape at the beginning of 2024. D. Sène, a mason by profession, became infatuated with his cousin SM Diouf, then only 14 years old. This forbidden love, maintained out of sight in a family compound, quickly turns into a series of clandestine meetings. This is how the young girl’s mother, Coumba Diouf, begins to have suspicions. Seeing her daughter moving further and further away and guessing a relationship that could not be innocent, she decides to challenge the mason, formally forbidding him from approaching her daughter. But, despite this maternal prohibition, D. Sène persists.
The Observer describes a tense family climate, which ends up degenerating into a violent altercation between the mothers of the young lovers. The mason, with no other choice, leaves the family home, but not the heart of his young lover. The situation worsens when SM Diouf begins to go directly to his cousin’s house, abandoning his school obligations. Until the day when, after frequent secret visits, she fell seriously ill.
It was at the Thierno Mouhamadou Mansour Barro hospital that the unthinkable was confirmed: a gynecologist noticed a long-standing loss of the hymen, accompanied by serious tears. Faced with physical pain and the weight of her mother’s questions, the minor confessed. She describes the multiple abuses suffered and the encounters in the accused’s room, testimony which upsets her parents even more.
Cornered, SM Diouf’s parents have no other recourse than to bring the matter before the Mbour gendarmerie. Questioned by the police, D. Sène does not deny the accusations, but multiplies the justifications, evoking detailed confessions. In a final attempt to escape years in prison, he offers a surprising deal: to marry his young victim, his own cousin, to “repair the family honor”.
For the moment, justice has not been convinced by this last minute nuptial promise. The mason D. Sène, after a face-to-face meeting with the prosecutor, was placed under arrest warrant. The Falokh district of Mbour, in shock, awaits the outcome of a trial which promises to be revealing and heartbreaking.
A drama that asks painful questions: where does love stop and manipulation begin? Will justice be able to give a satisfactory answer for the young girl, victim of the man who claimed to love her? The inhabitants of Mbour wait, hanging on the promise of justice, and not of marriage.
