Somaliland Minister of Education Speaks About The Raped Girl

Hargeisa—On 22 June of the last month, Somaliland newsletter made a coverage about the tragedy of a young innocent, poor girl who has been in the responsibility of a big institution, Hargeisa Orphanage, a government-owned institution.  Impregnated by unknown rapist(s) so far, the girl suffer and her forthcoming newborn baby which seven-month old will add her abject poverty to her family which in the first place forced her to leave her family when they failed to raise her for lack of financial support. The family’s misery doubled as new child is coming. Will the family ever trust any other institution? How will they raise the two children? There are more questions than answers.

 The government didn’t spoke about it, however; the very young girl is raped in Hargeisa’s government-run orphanage and the minister of education spoke about his ministry that it followed the standard procedures for such case. He channeled the case to investigation and justice department. He told the local press he waits the outcome.

The said little girl wasn’t just raped—which is very rampant in Somaliland in the last decade— but she had been impregnated by the rapist or rapists. A unique story of unprecedented pain to many people. The girl is a minor child because of that; she is a child giving birth another child, impossible but  a heartbreaking and the incident moved many people to tears including her father who as the picture shows is crying despite being an old man. “We set up inquest task force to investigate the crime, but the matter was blown out of proportions,” said the minister of education of Somaliland.

The speech by the minister is the first one since the shameful incident happened. The government broke a period of silence but the minister didn’t explain why the government restored to silence when the girl’s senile parents were crying over their daughter of illegal pregnancy.  So far, no worker be senior admin member or not in the orphanage institute has been arrested or charged for this colossal failure.

Both the parents and those who heard this horrific event wait impatiently the case finalization and if any perpetrator would ever be tried for his brutal crime.