Guinea: Residents demand justice for late rape victim, M'Mah Sylla

Residents of Conakry, Guinea’s capital are seeking justice in the death of 25-year-old secretarial graduate M'Mah Sylla who died through an alleged rape by pseudo-doctors at a private clinic in the city.

On Wednesday November 24 More than a hundred residents of the Enta neighborhood gathered in one of the small cemeteries in this popular suburb of Conakry, to pay their last respects to M'mah Sylla.

While at it, residents called for an immediate halt on the recurring incidents of rape in the country.

"We are saddened, but at the same time we are happy to see all this engagement, because rape is a recurrent issue in Guinea, in Africa and everywhere else, we don't talk about it." Mountaga Keïta, a close friend stated.

Moussa Yero Bah who is a member of the Non-governmental organization F2DHG had an opportunity to meet Sylla in her last days. She recounted the conversation that went on between the two.

"We will continue the fight so that others can be inspired by M'Mah Sylla, be strong and speak out. M'Mah agreed to speak in a testimony she gave me, in a video she told me: I will be strong, I want to heal, I want to be strong. I thank everyone, I'm going to get out of this because there's no better way than health, but she couldn't get out of it, because God had reserved this other destiny for her."

M'Mah died on Saturday, November 20 in Tunis, where she had been treated for a month after the alleged rape and medical abuse. It is also alleged that the doctors who committed the act also tried to abort her but the operation failed.

After the ordeal suffered by M'mah Sylla, president of the Union of Consumers of Guinea, Ousmane Keita, hopes that the health sector will be taken in hand by all its actors, including the Order of Physicians. "The Order of Physicians must also get involved in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health to ensure that there are no unlicensed doctors who can operate in clinics and hospitals.

The Guinean Order of Physicians, in the process of renewing its authorities, has filed a civil suit in this case.