Do you remember, Hiriyti, the amputee young woman, who was featured on Radio Assenna “Voices of Torture from Sinai”? Her anger and despair that she lived to face the ugly side of life as if her disability was not tough enough was evident throughout the informal interview. Her worst expectation, the dreadful suffering that she saw on the poor Eritrean victims when she arrived at the underground death cells in Sinai has happened to her in its most horrible form.  No more Hiryti; she is gone forever at the hands of the wild, human traffickers, the Sinai Bedouins. HIRIYTI is dead.

Hiriyti Hishal, 30, is from Eritrea, a small village called Bilenayo, in Gash Barka region. She fled her village to Shagarab, refugee camp in Sudan. Hiryiti was kidnapped by the Rashaida along a teenage girl on the New Year eve when she was going back to her house from church. Radio Assenna traced her in Sinai, and her heartbreaking story was featured on our previous program.  This time around, we could only speak to eyewitnesses. She died a week ago after repetitive torture and severe burns. Hiriyti, the poor refugee disabled victim’s only fault was her failure to pay the huge ($40,000) ransom to the lawless, brutal Sinai Bedouins.