Victoria Conteh becomes Sierra Leone's first top-flight female coach

Sierra Leonian top-flight side East End Tigers have named police officer Victoria Conteh as their head coach.

"I'm so proud being a woman... to be appointed head coach of a male football team," Conteh, 45, told AFP on Friday.

"It has never happened in Sierra Leone," she added.

Also known by the nickname "D'Cox," Conteh said she started playing football in her childhood, as a defender, and went on to captain the police football team.

"I'm encouraging more girls to play football in Sierra Leone," Conteh said.

Human rights defenders say women are routinely discriminated against in the former British colony of some 7.5 million people.

This month, for example, the court of justice of West Africa bloc ECOWAS ruled that a policy banning pregnant girls from school breached rights of access to education.

East End Tigers is based in the diamond-mining town of Tongoma, in eastern Sierra Leone.

The club said on social media that it was "delighted" to appoint Conteh as the first female head coach in Sierra Leone's premier league.

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