GALKAYO – Police in central Somalia have arrested five young men for committing rape against a 15-year-old girl in Galkayo, Police officer Mohamed Nur Ali Gadar said.
The five men are currently held in police station in the south of Galkayo under the Galmudug Administration.
“Following a tip-off from the public, we have noticed that the men held the girl for days as they raped her. We have successfully arrested them” Major Gadar said.
The police also arrested the owner of the building where the men committed the crime against the girl.
The five men between the ages of 17 – 27 are all locals and hailing from major clans in the town which made the police to investigate the case very difficult.
“There are clan elders attempting to handle the case in a traditional way which is contrary to the rights of the young victims as the family of the girl are powerless” he added.
He said the police officers opposed suggestions from the elders as counter-productive due to the increased cases of rape and sexual violence against women and girls in the area.
The young victims, which Somaliupdate won’t reveal her name is currently in the town as relatives said that they did not take her to any health facility for urgent medication.
In many parts of Somalia, clan elders from the families or rapists negotiate with the rape victims’ families resulting rapists to pay small amount of money as compensation, or in some cases victims are married off to their rapists prompting severe physiological problems on the life of the female victims.
In January, a court in Puntland sentenced five men to ten years in jail, hundred lashes and thousands of dollars of fine on five young men who raped a teenage girl in Galdogob town late last year after a mobile video recorded by the perpetrators became viral on social media.