Sana’a: Yemen security services in the southern province of Taiz are investigating rape and death case of a two year old Somali child, Gulf News has learnt from security officials.

“Nine days ago, a Somali woman who was cradling a two-year child came to us claiming that her child was raped by a Somali refugee,” said Abdul Hakim Najad, a chief security of Al Mudhafar district in Taiz.

“The child was almost dead. The mother presented a medical report from Al Mukhtar hospital in Dhale saying was child was raped and was suffering from internal injuries,” he added. The rape allegedly took place in the city of Dhale and the mother and her child moved to Taiz to report the incident. The child was taken to Taiz’s Al Thawra Hospital, where she later died. Her body is currently in the hospital’s morgue.

The security official said that police immediately arrested the Somali refugee.

“Initial investigations showed that the lady kept her child with the man, 25, and left. When she came back, she found her child bleeding. The mother is married to a rich Somali man who lives in Somalia.”

The two Somalis were questioned by the province’s detectives. But as both of them do not speak Arabic, detectives could not get much information from them.

“He denied the rape. We could not push them for details about the incident as both of them speak Somali and we could not find a translator. So we referred them to Taiz’s prosecution which will look into the case,” said Abdul Hakim Al Maghbesh, the director of Taiz’s Criminal Investigation.

The defendant could stay in detention for sometime as Yemen judges are on strike.

The two security officials interviewed declined to provide a copy of the report saying it was sent to the prosecution.

The incident first came to light on September 25 when the official website of ministry of interior reported that a Somali girl, eight, was raped to death in Al Mudhafar district in Taiz. The ministry said that the perpetrator was a Somali man aged 45 and names him as Hussien Ali Mohammad Dawood, who had no official identification documents and had entered Yemen illegally.

Unlike the recent case of Rawan, the eight year old child bride who allegedly died on her wedding night that recently grabbed the headlines locally, this case has not received given much attention in the local press.

Source: Gulf News