Emaan Ghumman kidnapping | Community members speak outside Dreamland Primary School
EAST LONDON - The family of kidnapping survivor Emaan Fatima Ghumman will be addressing the media to discuss the harrowing abduction of their nine-year-old daughter last week.
Authorities have arrested three suspects linked to the kidnapping.
The young girl was taken from outside her school in Buffalo Flats, East London, last Tuesday.
eNCA’s Ronald Masinda spoke with community members outside Dreamland Primary School in Buffalo Flats.
Simone Klaasen spoke with Emaan and shared some of what the child told her, saying, "I asked her, were you scared, Emaan [and] she said,
"In the beginning, I was scared but after that I was not because my name is Emaan Fatima. Emaan means faith and Fatima is our prophet's daughter. I was calm and I knew I would be safe."
Klaasen said, "It broke my heart yesterday [Thursday] when she said she was locked up in a room and there was another room next to her and she could hear everything. She said, "I heard them saying there is too much on this child let us kill her and leave her on the side of the road."
"And she said still in that moment, I knew I would not be killed. I knew my father would fetch me."
Klaasen also said the child asked her kidnappers to share their food with her.
Her father says the family is still angry over Emaan's ordeal, yet they are also thankful for her safe return.
Emaan is currently recovering in hospital after being subjected to severe torture during her ordeal.