by Fatima Babih, EdD
Her name is Aisha Francess Dumbuya. She is 18 years old. She is Sierra Leonean. Her case demonstrates the harsh reality of the unabated child and human trafficking in Sierra Leone and West Africa.
In a widely shared video, Aisha, a young Sierra Leonean woman, speaks with Nigerian activist and whistleblower Very Dark Man (VDM) about her trafficking ordeal. Her story is painfully familiar, yet still shocking in its details.
Aisha’s journey into trafficking began with street vending, a dangerous activity for girls in Sierra Leone. It was there that she met a Nigerian woman who became a regular, friendly customer. Over time, trust was built. After Aisha shared her aspiration to become an actress, the woman listened, showed interest in Aisha’s dreams, and eventually offered what sounded like a life-changing opportunity: help her travel to Nigeria and get her into the Nigerian movie industry, Nollywood.
What followed was not opportunity, but deception.
Aisha traveled by road for several weeks with nine other girls. Along the way, girls were dropped off in different West African countries, Mali, Ghana, and others, until Aisha eventually arrived in Nigeria. It was only then that the truth was revealed.
The woman informed Aisha and the remaining girls that the only “job” available to them was prostitution.
Aisha refused.
Knowing she did not leave her country to sell her body, Aisha escaped. Alone, undocumented, and vulnerable in a foreign country, she did what any sensible citizen should be able to do in a crisis: she sought help from the Sierra Leone Embassy in Nigeria.
She received no help.
No emergency assistance.
No repatriation support.
No protection.
Instead, Aisha was eventually connected to Very Dark Man (VDM), an activist known for intervening in cases involving kidnapped and trafficked persons, who helped bring her story to public attention.
Today, Aisha is not asking for compensation, publicity, or sympathy.
She is asking for one simple thing: Send me back home.
Her plea exposes not only the cruelty of traffickers, but the devastating consequences of Sierra Leone government neglect, where a girl can survive exploitation only to be abandoned by the very institutions meant to protect her. Just as it is happening in the country.
Aisha’s story is not an isolated one. It is a pattern for Sierra Leonean girls who are facing abuse and exploitation in the country, as well as those caught in the trafficking network around the world.
In my book, The Bal Bal Girls: A West African Child Trafficking Story, I document, systematically and unapologetically, the very failures this young woman describes:
- how girls are trafficked under the guise of opportunity,
- how embassies and consulates routinely abandon stranded girls,
- how silence, bureaucracy, and indifference become accomplices to exploitation, and
- how governments escape accountability while survivors are left to fend for themselves.
What makes this video especially painful is how closely it mirrors the testimonies in my book. The confusion. The fear. The disbelief that one’s own country would look away. These are not anecdotes, they are evidence.
This book does not merely tell stories. It connects the dots between trafficking networks, institutional neglect, and the quiet suffering of girls who are expected to survive on resilience alone.
As you watch this conversation between a Nigerian activist and a Sierra Leonean trafficking survivor, I invite you to ask yourself a difficult question:
How many more girls must speak before we admit this is a system failure, not a personal one?
The Bal Bal Girls is for readers who want truth, accountability, and a deeper understanding of why trafficking persists in Sierra Leone and West Africa, not in the shadows, but in plain sight.
MAMA SALONE ~ Lioness of the West Coast 