Nairobi - The United Nations
children's agency UNICEF Tuesday condemned the recent
stoning to death of a 13-year-old Somali girl for
adultery in the port town of Kismayo, which was taken
over by Islamist insurgents in August. The girl, Aisha
Duhulow, was last week stoned to death for adultery
under Islamic law, or sharia. Initial reports said that
the girl was in her twenties.
UNICEF said that reports indicated the girl had
not committed adultery, but been raped by three men
while walking to visit her grandmother in the capital
Mogadishu.
The Islamic authorities said that the girl had
confessed to her crime and repeatedly asked for the full
penalty under sharia.
However, witnesses told the BBC that she begged
for her life before being buried up to her neck in the
ground and stoned by around 50 men in front of over
1,000 spectators.
"This is a tragic and deplorable incident" said
UNICEF Representative for Somalia, Christian
Balslev-Olesen. "A child was victimized twice - first by
the perpetrators of the rape and then by those
responsible for administering justice."
Insurgents have been fighting Somalia's
transitional federal government since Ethiopian troops
helped oust the Union of Islamic Courts in early 2007.
However, main insurgent group al-Shabaab has
rejected the deal and vowed to keep fighting until
Ethiopian forces leave Somalia.
The Horn of Africa nation has been plagued by
chaos and civil war since the ouster of dictator Mohamed
Siad Barre in 1991.
