Article 5MQAP When shame kills: why do so many mothers in Senegal feel forced to murder their babies?

When shame kills: why do so many mothers in Senegal feel forced to murder their babies?

by
Maroussia Mbaye
from World news | The Guardian on (#5MQAP)

Photographer Maroussia Mbaye spoke to women who said crushing social stigma, poverty and lack of traditional support systems had left them with no choice but to commit infanticide

Mbeubeuss is one of the biggest rubbish tips in Africa and Senegal's largest open cemetery for murdered children. In the past three years, the bodies of 32 infants have been recovered from the site by the waste-pickers who work there.

Looking at the high rate of infanticide in Senegal, it seems the main reasons for it are shame about pregnancy outside marriage and a loss of traditional support for young women.

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