Salamatu Jalloh, a 13-year-old girl, has been reportedly killed in a ‘bondo’ bush society after she had undergone a female genital cutting initiation of her private body part.

The incident took place at Kabylor Village and Bubuya village in the Tonko Limba Chiefdom, Kambia District.

The matter was reported at the Sierra Leone Police in the Madina Police Station on Tuesday, 2nd January 2024.

Persons of interest in the matter were brought to the Kambia Police Station on Wednesday, 3rd January 2024, for further investigation.

And those main suspects in that matter is Barlay Turay, a Sowei (Bondo principal initiator) and  is currently in police custody along with two others and including the mother of late victim; the grandmother who allegedly took the deceased to the Sowei woman to be initiated.

The father of the late Salamatu Jalloh, according to report, never knew about his daughter’s planned initiation ceremony but not until later when he got the sad news of her daughter’s death in the bondo bush.

According to reports the father got the information of his daughter’s death via a telephone that he lovely daughter had died in the bondo bush through undergoing FGM customary rite.

Police report says, Salamatu Jalloh died as a result of “excessive bleeding” after a genital cutting.

Salamatu Jalloh’s corpse is still in the village, and there was an attempt to secretly bury her in the village bondo bush.

However, through the intervention of the Sierra Leone police, the body is kept in the mortuary pending investigation and post-mortem.

In another development, another death has been reported at Bubuya village Tonko Limba Chiefdom.

Speaking to the Executive Director of the Amazonian Initiative Movement (AIM), Rugiatu Neneh Turay, a FGM activist said, “this is the second FGM death reported within a short period.”

According to Neneh Turay, a lot of girls are facing similar ordeals, but parents and community stakeholders do “sweep these cases under the carpet”.

She vowed to follow up investigations into these cases to the latter as they have done in previous cases in: Bonthe, Bombali, Tonkolili, Kailahun districts among others.