Sex crimes up amid Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone

Kenema — Reports that rates of sexual assault and teenage pregnancy have soared in Sierra Leone since the start of the Ebola outbreak have prompted the government to plan a raft of measure to protect girls and the UN to investigate the scale of the increase.

The outbreak has disrupted many facets of life in Sierra Leone, leading to poor record-keeping and thus a shortage of hard data, but an array of sources, including the police, local NGOs, the government, the UN and young people, all point to a surge in both rape and consensual sex among teenagers, which have led to an increase in teenage pregnancy.

"We cannot give exact figures yet, as assessments are ongoing ... But what we are hearing from many of our different partners on the ground is that the prevalence has increased," said Dhuwarakha Sriram, a child protection specialist for UNICEF, adding that a rise in child marriage is also of concern.

"We're still looking into it, but these girls aren't going to school and they don't have much to do, so this may be why it has gone up."

Idle minds

Sixteen-year-old Amie, a student at St. Joseph's Secondary School in Freetown, agreed. She told IRIN that two of her close friends have gotten pregnant since the outbreak began in May.

"When school was in session before Ebola, I didn't think about my boyfriend," she said. "I was fully focused on my studies. But now it is very difficult and boring. I want school to reopen because it will help young girls stay away from sexual intercourse."

For those women and girls who do want to practice safe sex, family planning counseling and contraceptives are now much harder to come by. General health facilities have been shut down; others are too overwhelmed by Ebola cases to offer such services.

Local authorities say that forced quarantines and high rates of unemployment among men may also be contributing factors.

"They say 'the idle mind is the devil's workshop,'" said Detective Sergeant Aruna Gbondo, with the Kenema Police Station's Family Support Unit.

"Before Ebola, sexual offence was not on the increase, although there were reported cases. But during the course of this Ebola, this has become another epidemic, especially sexually activities involving teenage boys and teenage girls. Sexual offense is really becoming a menace."

New, riskier roles

With traditional family structures ravaged by the Ebola death doll, many girls have been forced to take over as head of their households. Others are being sent out to work to earn whatever extra money they can, at time, according to the World Bank, when many household businesses have gone bust and those still functioning have seen turnover plummet.

Other girls have turned to transactional sex in order to support their families, UNICEF says.

These new roles outside the home have put young girls at an increased risk of sexual assault within their communities.

"I was selling water and other items in town along a street, when one man called to me, said 14-year-old Saliamatu. "He told me he wanted to buy [something] and took me into a house where he said he kept his money."