Five human rights organisations working on advancing the rights of women and girls in Sierra Leone, are urgently calling on the leadership of Sierra Leone, and all political actors to take immediate action to address the increase in incidents of sexual and gender based violence across the West African country. 

19-year-old Noura Hussein was sentenced to death on 10 Thursday by a court in Sudan. The court found her guilty of murder after she killed her “husband” in self-defence. She had been forced to marry him by her father and when she refused to consummate the marriage, the man came with a group of relatives who held her down while he violently raped her. He returned the next day to rape Noura again and in the struggle he was fatally stabbed.