This article contains descriptions of rape, exploitation and sexual assault. Reader discretion is advised. Sadio Konimba had hoped for a better future.
The 26-year-old had lost her husband and was left alone with her child in Bamako, the capital of Mali. When an acquaintance told her about the possibility of reaching Europe via the West African nation of Guinea-Bissau, she decided to make the journey. She left her 6-year-old daughter behind with relatives for the time being.
Konimba says she was invited to the country's capital, Bissau, with the promise of work and better chances of eventually continuing on to Europe. She was told the journey from Bamako to Bissau would cost between 100,000–125,000 CFA francs (roughly €150-€190, or $170-$210), which she paid. She had only intended to stay temporarily in Guinea-Bissau, but when she wanted to return to Mali, her money was not refunded.
"I had to pay a large sum of money," Sadio told DW, adding that instead of the prospects she had been promised, she was confronted with a very different reality. According to Konimba's account, men from Senegal offered to repay the money she had paid if she "worked" for them. When she realized what that meant, she refused and demanded her money back.
To this day, she has received nothing. Jane, a 21-year-old woman from Sierra Leone, recounted how she was subjected to an attempted rape and other abuses at the hands of a criminal network. She told French news agency they even tried to force her into prostitution.
Sadio and Jane are among dozens of victims of a suspected human trafficking ring that was dismantled by police following an operation in Guinea-Bissau on October 21. The intervention followed complaints from victims who had reported abductions and fraud. In a written statement to DW, the criminal investigation police said that more than five suspects had been arrested.
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