BY- Aminata S. Kromah
aminatakromah116@gmail.com
(April 12, 2023) Brewerville-Liberia: There appears to be a growing wave of attacks on women bodies and their lives. Early Wednesday morning April 12, 2023, residents of Brewerville community, District 17, Montserrado County woke up to the death of 29 yrs old Esther Lamine.
She was allegedly murdered by her long time boyfriend and children father Richard Kollie, aged 40. He is currently on the run.
According to family sources, Richard’s only reason for committing the act was purely out of jealousy that his girlfriend had an extra affair.
Family Sources indicated that Esther Larmie, mother of 4 children, was shot multiple times in the head, mouth and stomach by her boyfriend Richard at mid night with a gun in the Vai Town Banjor Community.
Esther’s death sums to the number of three women who have died as a result suspicious jealousy from their spouses in in a week time in Liberia.
Esther (deceased) and Richard had been living together since 2007 with their 4 kids.
A sister to Esther (Louise Larmie) told WOMEN’s TV-Liberia that prior to the alleged murder, Richard had frequently accused Esther of having an extra relationship and threatened severe action if he finds the truth. The relative revealed that Richard further accused some community members of being part of the conspiracy of the extra affairs and further threatened them.
“At mid night, we heard gun sound from outside, we thought it was lightning, so another sound came again, so we thought to go and check where it came from. We realized it was from Richard’s room, when we got there we saw Esther lying in a pool of blood but Richard had escape”, a community dweller noted.
Louis Larmie, the deceased sister revealed that Richard Kollie had always melted domestic violence against the deceased to which family members intervention had been craved.
“He always used to beat on her and insult her, till one day the family took him to prison and he begged and promise never to repeat anything of such”, she added.
It is the first time such incident had happened in the community, based upon that, fear has grip residents of the area as to the alleged gruesome act of Richard towards his children mother Esther.
Police have launched an investigation into the matter and massive search for Richard.
Statistics from the Ministry of Gender revealed a total number of 1,414 Gender based violence cases were recorded from January to September 2022. 32% (562) accounted for GBV deaths for women.
According to UN Women, globally on average, more than five women or girls were killed every hour in 2021 by someone in their own family.
The report states globally that of the the 81,000 women and girls intentionally killed last year, 45,000 – around 56 per cent – died at the hands of intimate partners or other family members.
Meanwhile, the UN women report pointed out that 11 per cent of all male homicides are perpetrated in the private spheres, revealing that home is not a safe place for many women and girls around the world.