Somalia outraged by gang-rape of toddler and infant girls

The three and four-year-old cousins were reportedly playing outside on Wednesday when they were kidnapped by unknown assailants, the report said.

The two girls were sexually assaulted and later found walking alone by a frantic search party that was deployed to locate the them.

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Both of the victims are being treated by doctors at a hospital and are in need of surgery.

"We received young patients aged three and four. They were brutally gang-raped but we are doing everything to save their lives. I have never witnessed such an ordeal, it’s simply unimaginable," the director-general of Madina Hospital, Dr. Mohamed Yusuf Mohamed said, according to Garowe Online.

Several arrests have been made following the assault, government officials confirmed, according to the BBC report.

The assault on Wednesday comes as rights groups call for a more robust judicial system to tackle rapes in the war-torn country.

The United Nations Population Fund in a statement said: "stands with the girls and their families and calls for recourse for proper judicial process to take its course.

"We also reiterate our call for the speedy passage into law the Sexual Offences Bill which has been pending adoption in the country’s parliament. The law will be vital in preventing and dealing with culprits of sexual offences."

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