Breast Ironing

Published by The Guardian
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The African ritualistic ‘tradition’  of breast ironing involves the physical mutilation of pubescent girls. Through a months long investigation, I revealed that it also takes place unhindered on UK soil. Medical experts and victims regard it as a form of child abuse which could lead to physical and psychological scars, infections, inability to breastfeed, deformities and breast cancer. The UN describes it as one of five global underreported crimes relating to gender-based violence. The investigation led to more victims speaking out, triggered debates in parliament, and the Crown Prosecution Service changing its legal guidelines, with perpetrators now facing up to 10 years in prison.
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Part 1 

Revealed: 'dozens' of girls subjected to breast-ironing in UK

Part 2

In a quiet suburban house on the outskirts of a city in northern England, Maureen – a mother of two in her late 30s – sits cradling a large dark stone in the palm of her hand.


​Exclusive: perpetrators could face up to 10 years in prison under new legal guidance
​'Gold pits have become tombs': mining leaves a tragic legacy in Cameroon

Published by The Guardian

The ruthless quest for gold in eastern Cameroon has left the landscape peppered with deadly open pits
“Honourable ministers, how many more deaths do you want in order to put an end to this?.”  “These irresponsible mining companies… are pillaging us and they are killing us.These poisonous lakes, these gold pits have become tombs.”
Lesbian 'witches' chained and raped by families in Cameroon

Published by the Thomson Reuters Foundation

"They kept shouting that I deserved this punishment, that they were correcting me," said the 33-year-old, who has told her story to hundreds of girls in sexual health awareness and LGBT+ workshops in Cameroon.

"If I had reported it, I would've been seen not as a victim but rather as someone who deserved what had happened."
Sacked, shunned and suicidal - the Cameroon sports stars battling anti-gay laws
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Published by the Thomson Reuters Foundation

Same-sex relationships are taboo across much of Africa, which has some of the world's most prohibitive laws against homosexuality.
But few countries are as assiduous in applying them as Cameroon, whose penal code punishes "sexual relations between persons of the same sex" with up to five years in prison.