Thursday March 27, 2025
Bosaso (HOL) — Puntland authorities are investigating a case involving an 8-year-old girl who was missing for six months and later found living with a man claiming to be her husband, in an incident that has sparked national outrage and revived calls for stronger child protection laws.
The girl was reported missing from Bosaso in September 2023. Her family searched for months, only to recognize her in a video that surfaced online in March showing her reciting verses from the Qur'an. She was eventually located in the Puntland town of Armo, where she had been living with a man who told authorities and the family that she was his wife.
Police and human rights officials in Puntland have since taken the girl into protective custody. The man, who has been accused of abducting and marrying her, remains under investigation. Officials have not announced whether he will face criminal charges.
The girl's disappearance began in Bosaso, Somalia's commercial hub in Puntland. According to her uncle, she was taken by a female relative who said she would be visiting another family member in a nearby area called Hurdiya. The child never returned.
Months passed without any leads—until March, when the family spotted her in a viral video. She was alive, reading religious texts, and living with a man who later told the family he had married her.
"At first, he said her aunt brought her so he could teach her the Qur'an," the uncle told the BBC. "But after we filed a complaint, he changed his story and said she was his wife, and her father had given her to him legally."
The man, identified only as Sheikh Mahamoud, defended his actions during an interview with BBC Somali. "According to the Shafi'i school of thought and the Prophet's tradition, it is permissible to marry a girl at this age," he said, referring to the child.
When asked how he could marry someone widely considered a minor by law, he claimed he had believed the girl was 12, based on information from her father. Relatives from her hometown, however, confirmed that she was only 8 years old.
Despite being confronted with national law and widespread condemnation from Somali clerics, Mahamoud remained defiant. "I will not renounce the marriage," he said.
After the family alerted Puntland's police and human rights commission, a unit was dispatched to the man's home in Carmo. But rescuing the girl was not straightforward.
According to relatives, the man barricaded himself inside his home with the girl and refused to open the door. Local elders attempted to mediate, urging a peaceful resolution. Eventually, officers forced entry and retrieved the child.
The girl is now under the care of Puntland authorities. Officials say an investigation is ongoing, but details remain scarce. No court proceedings have been announced.
The case has renewed scrutiny of Somalia's patchwork legal system, where customary law, Islamic principles, and constitutional rights often collide.
Somalia's provisional constitution defines any person under 18 as a child. Yet, in practice, the absence of unified legal enforcement has allowed underage marriages to occur.
"Cases like this are common," said Sa'id Abdi Muumin, head of the Puntland Human Rights Commission. "There is a need for strong legislation that protects children's rights."
In recent years, Somalia's Ministry of Women and Human Rights drafted a child protection bill and submitted it to Parliament. However, the legislation was returned to the ministry after some religious scholars objected to clauses they deemed incompatible with Islamic teachings. The bill has not been reintroduced.
Across Somali social media, the case has ignited impassioned arguments. Critics have described the incident as a grotesque misuse of religion to justify child exploitation, while a vocal minority defended the accused, citing Islamic jurisprudence.
The case has also sparked conversations about the need for Somali-language legal terminology to describe crimes such as pedophilia and forced marriage accurately.