A president declared an emergency over rape. What happened next?

Sierra Leone's President Julius Maada Bio took the bold measurement of declaring a nationalist exigency implicit rape and intersexual unit successful 2019. Five years on, BBC Africa Eye explores whether survivors of attacks are getting justice.

Warning: This nonfiction contains details immoderate readers whitethorn find upsetting.

In the metropolis of Makeni, a three-hour thrust eastbound of Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, a young parent sits extracurricular her location with her three-year-old daughter.

Anita, which is not her existent name, describes the time successful June 2023 erstwhile she recovered her toddler with humor dripping from her nappy.

"I worked for this woman, and she gave maine an errand that Saturday greeting to spell to the market," she says, explaining that she past near her kid with her leader and her 22-year-old son.

"He took my child, helium said, to bargain sweets and biscuits for her. It was a lie."

When she got back, she realised her girl was missing. After searching for her for immoderate time, they were reunited but the 22-year-old parent could spot that the toddler was bleeding. She took her to the infirmary and aft 2 rounds of stitches, it was confirmed she had been raped.

"The nurses began checking the child, and they said: 'Oh my God, what has this antheral done to this child?' The doc who was treating my kid adjacent cried."

Anita went to the constabulary but the antheral fled and a twelvemonth connected the constabulary person not been capable to find him.

"The president created a instrumentality truthful that whoever rapes children, should beryllium arrested and sent to jail," she says, aggravated that thing appears to person been done.

She is referring to a tougher intersexual offences instrumentality created 5 years agone aft President Maada Bio declared the exigency implicit rape.

It followed protests successful December 2018 erstwhile hundreds of radical wearing achromatic T-shirts emblazoned with the words "Hands disconnected our girls" marched done Freetown.

News of different kid rape had shocked the federation - a five-year-old miss who was near paralysed from the waist down. It was reported astatine the clip that cases of intersexual unit had astir doubled wrong a year, a 3rd involving children. Sierra Leoneans had had enough.

The four-month agelong authorities of exigency from February 2019 allowed the president to divert authorities resources into tackling intersexual violence.

An updated Sexual Offences Act brought successful stricter penalties for intersexual assault.

Rape sentences were accrued to a minimum of 15 years, oregon beingness if it progressive a child. A Sexual Offences Model Court to fast-track trials was created successful Freetown the pursuing year.

There appears to person been immoderate advancement - reported cases of intersexual and gender-based unit person gone down by astir 17%, from conscionable implicit 12,000 successful 2018 to conscionable implicit 10,000 successful 2023, according to constabulary statistics.

Creating accrued consciousness and caller structures is 1 thing, but making definite that people, similar Anita's daughter, get justness is another.

The Rainbo Initiative is simply a nationalist foundation that works with survivors of intersexual violence. It says that successful 2022 conscionable 5% of the 2,705 cases it handled made it to the High Court.

One of the issues is the resources disposable to those who are expected to enforce the law.

At the constabulary presumption successful Makeni wherever Anita reported her daughter's rape, Assnt Supt Abu Bakarr Kanu who leads the Family Support Unit (FSU) says they get astir 4 cases of kid intersexual battle each week.

The large situation his squad faces is simply a deficiency of transport to physically spell and apprehension suspects.

He co-ordinates each 7 constabulary divisions successful the portion and betwixt them they bash not person a azygous vehicle.

"There are times the fishy is disposable but due to the fact that of deficiency of vehicles you can't scope that fishy to apprehension him oregon her," says Assnt Supt Kanu.

"Doing the close happening astatine the close clip is simply a challenge."

Like galore successful Sierra Leone, helium was impressed with the authorities enactment that followed the authorities of emergency.

"We person enough… bully laws and policy, but the operation and unit are the situation for america to holistically code the issues of intersexual and gender-based unit successful Sierra Leone."

Even if an alleged perpetrator is apprehended, to get them earlier a justice is an adjacent bigger struggle.

In bid for the lawsuit against a rape fishy to beryllium heard, determination is lone 1 idiosyncratic successful the state who tin motion the documents - the lawyer general. It was meant to velocity up the process and get the cases consecutive to the courts, but it has created a antithetic bottle-neck.

"Presently it is not imaginable to person immoderate different instrumentality serviceman oregon immoderate different counsel to motion an indictment for sexual-related offences," says State Counsel Joseph AK Sesay, a lawyer employed by the government.

"The 2019 amendment stipulates that it is lone the lawyer wide that tin rightly motion an indictment. So that has been posing a situation erstwhile it comes to getting the indictments to courts."

Information Minister Chernor Bah admits this is not a cleanable process but says it is "a process that we'll proceed to amended on".

Challenged connected the question that galore judge small has changed erstwhile it comes to getting justness for rape survivors, helium acknowledged that "in immoderate communities radical consciousness that way".

But helium rejects the thought that determination has been nary progress.

"I deliberation the systemic reforms that we've enactment successful spot are there. The caller laws are there. And those steps, I think, person led to the wide feeling that we're not successful the deep, acheronian days of 2019."

For Anita, backmost successful Makeni, it has been astir a twelvemonth since her toddler was raped.

She has had nary caller accusation from the police, truthful has resorted to posting the alleged suspect's photograph connected Facebook.

"I privation radical to assistance maine hunt for the boy. I'm tormented and I americium not happy. What has happened to my child, I don't privation it to hap to immoderate different child."

You tin ticker the afloat BBC Africa Eye documentary Behind Closed Doors - Sierra Leone's Gender-Based Violence Epidemic connected the BBC Africa YouTube channel.