![[Guinea] Aminata, 20, a trainee doctor, was attacked on her way to catch a taxi to university in Conakry, Guinea, 24 November 2006. A man wearing a boubou, the traditional West African attire, hit her over the head, stole her book bag and mobile phone and](https://assets.thenewhumanitarian.org/s3fs-public/styles/responsive_large_2x/public/images/200611271.jpg.webp?itok=JAL3YEiw "Aminata Baldez, une des nombreuses victimes de l'insécurité et de la criminalité galopantes en Guinée.")
The six imams sitting in a circle on the living room floor reciting the Koran are sanctifying the Baldez house so the bad fortune that saw one of the family’s four daughters brutally assaulted outside her own front door will not return.
Aminata, 20, a slender, earnest trainee doctor was attacked from behind on last Monday as she left the house before first light for the long walk to the main road to catch a taxi to university. A man wearing a boubou, the traditional West African attire, slammed her over the head, stole her book bag and mobile phone and walked off as she lay bleeding on the muddy road.
“He came up from behind and I did not see him until just before he hit me,” Aminata said. The force of the blow fractured Aminata’s skull and almost broke her neck, her doctors said. After a week in hospital, Aminata is back at home nursing a swollen face, two black eyes and wearing a grubby neck brace.
“This is all we do now,” Mouloukou Yansané, one of the white-capped imams called in to bless the Baldez house, told IRIN when the elaborate ceremony was over. “It is our job to bless houses and families so that God will give them protection. It is getting worse out there so there is a lot of demand these days.”
Districts off limits
Violent crime is soaring in Conakry, the palm tree-fringed island capital of Guinea that has descended into ruins as the country’s economy has dragged steadily downwards during the last four decades.
Most of the violence happens in the eastern suburbs of Conakry, where the city’s original plan of neat crisscrossing streets and broad tree-lined avenues has given way to acres of sprawling tin-roofed shacks, most without running water or electricity. The headless body of a young man, apparently a crime victim, was discovered Thursday in the eastern neighbourhood of Simbaya. His severed head was found a few metres away.
The districts of Nongo Tady, Kobaya, Sonfonia, Enco 5 have all been declared off-limits to United Nations staff, a classification usually only given to areas in war-torn countries. For the thousands of Guineans who have no choice other than to live there, life is frightening and dangerous.
Gun-shots frequently break the silence at night in the suburbs. Arms are prolific, in part because of conflicts in recent years in neighbouring Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote d’Ivoire. International human rights groups say Guinea was a transit point for weapons being shipped across its borders.
Almost constant power cuts in Conakry make walking the streets after dark a game of roulette. Women are especially at risk, and rape victims frequently seek help at the city’s hospitals, although only when another physical injury is involved, local residents say.
“There’s always risk, but we have no choice,” Aminata said. “We must start the day before dark and always come home after 8 pm.”
Tucked up on the couch and surrounded by friends and family, Aminata manages a thin smile while describing the attack. But her hands shake as she fiddles nervously with her mobile phone. A friend is taking notes at her university classes while she heals physically and gets ready to leave the house again.
Living in isolation
“We live here now in isolation, obscurity and danger,” Aminata’s mother, Sameer said. “We need to find a house somewhere else, we cannot continue to live like this, for the children’s sake.”
Guinea’s slouching police force offers the family little confidence. At the closest police post one kilometre down the unpaved road from Aminata’s house, the three police officers working the day shift said they had no knowledge of any attacks in their district.
“We’re just here for surveillance,” an officer who identified himself as Diallo told IRIN. The three policemen said they had no guns, car, or motorbike, although the night shift is armed.
Asked if she had informed the police, Aminata laughed. “There was actually a policeman opposite me when I came round. He handed me my empty bag back,” she said. “I’m certainly not the first person to be attacked and they have never done anything. In Guinea there is never justice for thieves.”
Human rights groups have reported that impunity is a serious problem in Guinea. In the absence of official law and order, in some parts of the city groups of young men – sometimes including the brothers and fathers of women who have been attacked – have formed small militia groups, roaming the streets after dark and offering security for a price.
The Baldez family said there is a militia group in their district, but they do not trust the young, unemployed boys in it to offer more than another source of menace. Instead, like many other families, the Baldezes turned to God for protection and called in the six imams.
“We are praying to our creator to protect the women,” Yantane, one of the Imam’s said.
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Aminata, 20, a slender, earnest trainee doctor was attacked from behind on last Monday as she left the house before first light for the long walk to the main road to catch a taxi to university. A man wearing a boubou, the traditional West African attire, slammed her over the head, stole her book bag and mobile phone and walked off as she lay bleeding on the muddy road.
“He came up from behind and I did not see him until just before he hit me,” Aminata said. The force of the blow fractured Aminata’s skull and almost broke her neck, her doctors said. After a week in hospital, Aminata is back at home nursing a swollen face, two black eyes and wearing a grubby neck brace.
“This is all we do now,” Mouloukou Yansané, one of the white-capped imams called in to bless the Baldez house, told IRIN when the elaborate ceremony was over. “It is our job to bless houses and families so that God will give them protection. It is getting worse out there so there is a lot of demand these days.”
Districts off limits
Violent crime is soaring in Conakry, the palm tree-fringed island capital of Guinea that has descended into ruins as the country’s economy has dragged steadily downwards during the last four decades.
Most of the violence happens in the eastern suburbs of Conakry, where the city’s original plan of neat crisscrossing streets and broad tree-lined avenues has given way to acres of sprawling tin-roofed shacks, most without running water or electricity. The headless body of a young man, apparently a crime victim, was discovered Thursday in the eastern neighbourhood of Simbaya. His severed head was found a few metres away.
The districts of Nongo Tady, Kobaya, Sonfonia, Enco 5 have all been declared off-limits to United Nations staff, a classification usually only given to areas in war-torn countries. For the thousands of Guineans who have no choice other than to live there, life is frightening and dangerous.
Gun-shots frequently break the silence at night in the suburbs. Arms are prolific, in part because of conflicts in recent years in neighbouring Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote d’Ivoire. International human rights groups say Guinea was a transit point for weapons being shipped across its borders.
Almost constant power cuts in Conakry make walking the streets after dark a game of roulette. Women are especially at risk, and rape victims frequently seek help at the city’s hospitals, although only when another physical injury is involved, local residents say.
“There’s always risk, but we have no choice,” Aminata said. “We must start the day before dark and always come home after 8 pm.”
Tucked up on the couch and surrounded by friends and family, Aminata manages a thin smile while describing the attack. But her hands shake as she fiddles nervously with her mobile phone. A friend is taking notes at her university classes while she heals physically and gets ready to leave the house again.
Living in isolation
“We live here now in isolation, obscurity and danger,” Aminata’s mother, Sameer said. “We need to find a house somewhere else, we cannot continue to live like this, for the children’s sake.”
Guinea’s slouching police force offers the family little confidence. At the closest police post one kilometre down the unpaved road from Aminata’s house, the three police officers working the day shift said they had no knowledge of any attacks in their district.
“We’re just here for surveillance,” an officer who identified himself as Diallo told IRIN. The three policemen said they had no guns, car, or motorbike, although the night shift is armed.
Asked if she had informed the police, Aminata laughed. “There was actually a policeman opposite me when I came round. He handed me my empty bag back,” she said. “I’m certainly not the first person to be attacked and they have never done anything. In Guinea there is never justice for thieves.”
Human rights groups have reported that impunity is a serious problem in Guinea. In the absence of official law and order, in some parts of the city groups of young men – sometimes including the brothers and fathers of women who have been attacked – have formed small militia groups, roaming the streets after dark and offering security for a price.
The Baldez family said there is a militia group in their district, but they do not trust the young, unemployed boys in it to offer more than another source of menace. Instead, like many other families, the Baldezes turned to God for protection and called in the six imams.
“We are praying to our creator to protect the women,” Yantane, one of the Imam’s said.
nr/cs
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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