WINDHOEK - A four-year-old girl from Greenwell Matongo in Katutura was allegedly lured with chocolate by unknown man while playing with her peers at a house and sexually assaulted in a riverbed a distance away.

The incident happened last week Thursday in the riverbed where she was carried between Greenwell Matongo and Wanaheda.

What was supposed to be a normal day for the outspoken four-year-old, who usually plays with her friend who live across her residence, turned into a tragedy.  

The mother, who cannot be named in order to protect the child’s identity, said her daughter told the family that the unknown man had a cap, backpack and some clothes on his arm which he sold in the settlement. 
He spoke Khoekhoegwab, according to the little girl.

Before the heinous act, the man allegedly lured the girl - who was with her friend - from her front yard. But her friend turned back home when they reached the tarred road.

The alleged rapist thereafter carried the girl more than 500 meters away, passing through a culvert to the riverbed. It is alleged the man penetrated her anus. The man left the girl in the riverbed and vanished. 
The mother told New Era that her daughter was discovered crying and trying to find her way by a woman. The little girl did not have her underwear on, it is said. 

Khomas Regional Crime Investigation Coordinator Deputy Commissioner Abner Agas told New Era that no arrest has been made yet but they are following some information.

The girl, with a blood stained eye, has been discharged from hospital.
The mother says her daughter is fine although she now and then speaks about a stranger (rapist) who was strangling her. 
The mother said since the incident, the little girl has been refusing to be without company of her family – fearing to be left alone again.

“She is suffering from trauma, she doesn’t want to be alone,” she said.
The mother added that social workers gave the daughter pictures to cut and paste when she is unhappy. She would share these photos with the social workers.

It is the mother’s prayer for the rapist to be arrested. “If the police can give me that person, I will take a hot iron and put it in his ass. He must be punished,” she said.

During the day of the incidence, the unemployed mother left home to get her children registered for social grants with the gender ministry.

The four-year-old was originally left with an older sister at home, the mother said.