Justice for Samsam

The Tragic Story of Samsam: The Young Girl Who Went to Visit Her Uncle

- Tuesday, October 12, 2004 at 22:33

Hargeisa (12 October 2004) - A court hearing deliberating the case of Samsam Ahmed Du’ale, a 15-year-old Somali girl, was in session in Hargeisa on the 10th of October, 2004. The prosecutor for the Government contends that the appellant, Samsam Ahmed Du’ale, planned to assassinate the Vice President of the self-declared republic of Somaliland (Northwest Somalia). As reported early in September, Samsam, the appellant, was molested, raped, detained, and tortured in Hargeisa, the capital city of Somaliland. It was alleged that Samsam Ahmed Du’aale of Qardho in the outskirts of Bosaso, the commercial city of the neighbouring Puntland State of Somalia was plotting to assassinate Somaliland’s Vice President. Confined for days in chains in Hargeisa’s General Hospital where she had undergone treatment for internal bleeding and abdominal mutilation sustained during her molestation, rape and detention in the hands of Somaliland’s security forces, Samsam is believed to have sustained psychological and physical scars that shall remain with her for the rest of her life. What was Samsam doing in Hargeisa, and why did she travel to Somaliland? Like many of her peers in Somalia, Samsam rejoices travel to other cities in Somalia to visit relatives, distant or otherwise during holidays and graduation from high school. Samsam, a graduate of Imam Al Nawawi High School in the academic year of 2003/2004, as confirmed by her cousin Ahmed M Du’ale, whose residence she grew up in Bosaso, travelled to Hargeisa to visit her uncle from her mother’s side, Mohamud Said Mohamed, a Deputy Minister for Somaliland’s Ministry of Sports. Samsam departed for Hargeisa on the 16th of August with the full knowledge of her cousin reaching Hargeisa’s main transit depot on the 17th. On arrival, Samsam who never travelled outside Bosaso, asked a cab driver (locally known as Mark II) to take her to her uncle’s residence: the Vice President. Not clearly making the distinction between the Vice President (Madaxweyne Ku Xigeen), and the Deputy Minister (Wasiir Ku Xigeen), Samsam was driven to the Vice President’s residence where on arrival she was interrogated by the security guards. Upon informing security guards that she was from Bosaso, Samsam was stripped of her headscarf at which point she slapped the officer objecting to his infringement of her strict Islamic upbringing. What ensued thereafter was not only wretchedly sadistic, horribly atrocious, and appallingly unacceptable to human standard and behaviour. 15-year-old Samsam was then dragged screaming by the hair with four bodyguards each on one of her limbs into their inbound shelter where Samsam was detained until the 20th of August when she was released into the custody of the Chief Commander of the notorious Central Intelligence Department (CID). At the time, her whereabouts were known to neither her family in Bosaso, nor to her uncle in Hargeisa. After successive, days-long, interrogative sessions, on the 24th of August, Samsam was subjected to brutal torture with beatings and electric shocks being applied to her breasts. And on the 25th of August Samsam endured six-hour ordeal of rape and sodomy by six officers of Somaliland’s CID. And subsequent to the persecution and rape, Samsam only 15 lost conscious by the afternoon of the 25th. Said Foolxun and Abdi Kiin both high ranking officers of the notorious CID were named as the men in charge of her torture and rape. Hours later, Samsam was rushed to Hargeisa’s General Hospital on stretches where Dr. Shacni, one of the GPs at hospital was horrified by the scene and state of Samsam who remained comatose until Thursday, 26th of August. As confirmed by Hospital Doctors treating Samsam, who wish to remain anonymous, 1.2 ml of male semen were scraped from her fistula with irreparable damage inflicted upon her rectum, uterus and womb. Additionally, Samsam lost one of her nibbles during her ordeal, it has been confirmed. Furthermore, Samsam is said to have sustained psychological impairment that she no longer recognises who she is, where she is, and why she remains detained. On the 28th of August, Samsam was transferred over to Hargeisa Central Prison where she remained under full watch. Upon receiving the news of her daughter’s torture, rape and imprisonment, Samsam’s mother travelled to Hargeisa where she was also detained upon arrival on the 31st of August. She was released on bail after spending 3 days in prison for simply being Samsam’s mother, and being from Bosaso, Puntland. The local media including the BBC Somali Section, local newspapers such as Jamhuuriya, online media outlets such as Somaliland.org all of which maintain local reporters were notified and asked to investigate Samsam’s situation, unfortunately all chose to completely snub the story. Of the 100+ Humanitarian Organisations in Hargeisa, not a single one was moved by the maltreatment, rape, sodomy and torture of the 15-year-old young girl. Somali, or otherwise; a kin or else, one must be touched by the inhumane nature of the story; unfortunately, humanity seems to have taken a flip for the worse in Hargeisa, Somaliland: a city that had witnessed its share of heartless deeds. One wonders as to the role of the media and humanitarian organisations in a case so horrendous and so callous as Samsam’s. Deeds of this kind, maltreatment of humans, torture, sodomy, rape, and infringement of humanity in the case of Samsam Ahmed Du’ale must be condemned in the strongest of terms. If left unchallenged, it is Samsam today, but shall be someone else’s sister, daughter, mother, friend, or neighbour. Mohamed A Ali Freelance Journalist _______________