What happened to little Sophia?
(B2) Born on August 24, 2015 aboard the "Schleswig-Holstein", her first name, Sophia, has become the nickname of the European operation off the Libyan coast (EUNAVFOR MED).
Today, the little girl, almost seven months old, lives in a small apartment in Gelsenkirchen in the Ruhr area, with her mother, Rahma Abukar Ali. A journalist from Rheinische Post met them.
For 33-year-old Rahma, the five months up the road to the Mediterranean coast have been a real ordeal. The interview with the German journalist Helmut Michelis allows us to better understand his motivations.
Already the mother of seven children, she left them in the care of the grandmother. " An act of desperation she confides. " My husband separated from me. Mogadishu has become dangerous. Attacks are on the rise. My mother told me: "You have no future here" ". The whole family then contributed to find the money necessary for him to pass. " An aunt gave 200 Euros, another relative 100 Euros »... Between 8000-10.000 euros were thus collected, the cost of a passage through the African continent towards Europe. And she left... to Europe " I just wanted a safe country in Europe. Germany, I didn't even think about it ". As for the first name of his daughter, it is very close (at least phonetically) to "Saffiya", a traditional girl name in Somalia. And she can be relatively proud of the birth certificate. At the mention "place of birth", it is thus indicated: Schleswig-Holstein frigate, position 37° north latitude and 16°27' east longitude ". Rather original!
(NGV)
