In October 2015, a 3-year-old boy was found dead in a family yard in sector 22 of Bobo-Dioulasso. That day, all the parents had left, leaving the child, his older brother and the cleaner at home.
The big brother was then 7 years old and was in CP2 class. That day, he did not go to school due to illness and was lying in the living room. The housekeeper knew that there is no one in the yard. She grabs the 3-year-old boy, drags him into a bedroom and then strangles him with a scarf she found in the house.
After the act, she locks the door and puts it in the pocket of the victim’s older brother. When the parents came to see the facts, they had the impression that it was the big brother who was behind the crime. But they organized the funeral and proceeded with the burial. Since that day, the cleaning lady no longer slept, she spent more than a week in nightmares. Every night she screams and jumps out of bed. On the strength of this observation, his boss asks him what really happened.
It is there that she clearly confesses to being the cause of the child’s death but declares that she acted under the instigation of an old woman in the neighborhood. These confessions from the servant finally exonerate the boy’s big brother. Immediately, the culprit was denounced to the judicial authorities so that all the light could be shed on this murder which created a stir among the residents of the district. She is indicted before the criminal chamber and was 16 at the time of the events.
In front of the criminal chamber of Bobo
Out of fear, the accused did not want to acknowledge the facts before the judges. Sometimes she says that she was mentally ill at the time of the events. Sometimes she says she doesn’t even remember having killed a child. In another statement, she maintains that it was a neighborhood watch who once confided to her that she does not like her boss and that she wants “I kill her child to hurt her. This is how she sprayed me with a liquid that sent me out of control”.
Questioned in turn, the mother of the victim is convinced that it was the cleaning girl who killed her child. “That day, they came to call me at the store, I came to find that my child was dead. We thought it was his older brother who killed him in the first place. But later, we realized that the girl was no longer sleeping. Each time, she had nightmares. One day I asked her and she told me everything. She explained how she killed the child. At the end of her remarks, she says that it was an old woman who threw a product at her, ”says the mother of the deceased at the helm. Also in his testimony, the father of the child is formal. The culprit is the servant. “That day, I was in Matourkou at the service. I was called around 10 a.m. that there was an unfortunate event at home. I came to find that my 3 year old passed away.
We were made to understand that it was his own big brother who would be behind it. People even came to see out of curiosity who was the child who killed his little brother. I had to send the big brother to Ouagadougou to continue his studies,” the victim’s father suggested. The general prosecutor’s office considered that the facts of assassination are established. But in view of the excuse of minority of the accused it requires that she be sentenced to 5 years imprisonment with suspension. The criminal chamber found him guilty. She took into account the fact that the accused was a minor at the time of the events. As a result, it benefits from the excuse of minority. In repression, condemns her to 5 years in prison.
Ben Alassane DAO
