Comoros: a father banished from his village for having filed a complaint for rape

The main market, Volo Volo, in Moroni, Comoros.

(Illustrative image) RFI / Anne Cantener

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

In the Comoros, the notables ban a father from his village for having dared to file a complaint for rape.

The alleged victim is her 12-year-old son.

The parents as well as their lawyer shouted their indignation on social networks.

So much so that the affair took on a national dimension, embarrassing the whole village.

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From our correspondent in Moroni

,

Anziza M'Changama

The parents of the 12-year-old child filed a rape complaint and the alleged perpetrator was placed under judicial supervision while remaining free for the duration of the investigation.

The child's father and his lawyer have publicly protested against this freedom.

Notability took them on the wrong foot by deciding to banish from their village of Mbambani not the accused, but the father of the young boy.

His wife wanted to follow him by filming the eviction of all his little family, arguing that the real reason why they were rejected is that the old sages had found it humiliating for the whole town that a complaint for this reason be filed.

Mediation of the authorities

Social networks are on fire.

At the heart of the national questioning: traditional power and justice.

Have we not allowed notability to supplant it?

And if the tribunal did not appear to be failing, would a group of individuals be able to claim to know who deserves to be punished?

The case has grown to such an extent that the authorities, who initially refused to take it up beyond the legal process initiated, ended up intervening to mediate between the notability and the rejected family.

The Mbambani notables were received by the Minister of the Interior, then by the Attorney General for mediation.

They believe that the father is still too belligerent but remind that the mother and her children can return home at any time.

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