Guinea: sadness, anger and need for justice at the funeral of M'mah Sylla
Audio 01:22
Residents of the Enta district and relatives of M'mah Sylla near the cemetery where the burial of the young woman took place, Wednesday, November 24.
© Matthias Raynal / RFI
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
This Wednesday afternoon, November 23, in Conakry, the funeral of M'mah Sylla took place.
The young woman died Saturday, November 20 in Tunis, where she had been treated for a month following rape and medical ill-treatment practiced by pseudo-doctors in two private establishments in Conakry.
The latter then tried to abort her, and the operations had gone badly.
Will illegal clinics come back in the sights of justice?
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With our correspondent in Conakry,
Matthias Raynal
The ambulance carrying
M'mah Sylla's
body
makes its way through the crowd. More than a hundred residents of the Enta district met in one of the small cemeteries of this working-class suburb of Conakry, to pay a last tribute to M'mah Sylla.
“
Justice and justice
! We are asking for nothing other than justice.
»Ousmane Diallo hammers his message. This uncle of M'mah Sylla even wrote it on a sign that he waved at the entrance to the cemetery: "
Justice for M'mah Sylla, never again
". He does not understand how doctors could have come to this. “
These are people we trust. When we have problems, we run to these doctors. If they can act like that, I can't stay home without protesting.
"
In the shade of the mango trees, the shovelfuls of earth gradually cover the coffin.
After a few recitations of the Koran, the men, the only ones admitted to the cemetery, disperse.
At the top of the hill, at his family's house, the women are meditating.
There is Aminata Bah her cousin, her eyes cloudy with tears.
“
It’s sad.
She's my girlfriend, she's my cousin, she was everything to me.
I'm mad.
"
Earlier today, the Minister of Social Action once again assured, on behalf of the government, that all light would be shed on this matter.
The "gangrene" of illegal clinics
The M'mah Sylla affair sheds a harsh light on the scourge of illegal clinics in Guinea.
A file on which the old administration had already looked and which is becoming hot for the new team in power.
Doctor Abdoulaye Kaba, hospital doctor and coordinator of the National Coalition of Health Professionals, does not hesitate to speak of “
gangrene
” when he mentions private clinics in Guinea.
Appeared in the 1990s during the liberalization of the health system, they flourished in Conakry and its suburbs.
But they often practice illegal practice of medicine by circumventing the requirements of the Ministry of Health.
"
They escape these conditions imposed by the Ministry of Health,
denounces Abdoulaye Kaba,
and go through the Ministry of Territorial Administration to obtain" medical awareness NGO "approvals.
These structures then go beyond their skills, with health personnel trained in questionable private schools, which are also proliferating, underlines Dr. Kaba.
“
Honestly, there are health schools today that have no legal documents that can allow them to practice.
And there are students who leave these health schools in an anarchic fashion.
"
Sector recovery hoped for
After the ordeal suffered by M'mah Sylla, the president of the Union of Consumers of Guinea, Ousmane Keita, hopes for a takeover of the sector 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 unauthorized doctors who can operate in clinics and hospitals.
"
In the meantime, the Guinean Order of Physicians, in the process of renewing its proceedings, has taken legal action in this case.
Coincidence of the calendar, the burial of the young woman takes place on the eve of the world day of violence against women this Thursday, November 25.
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