Women living in Ethiopia face a very harsh reality. They live in constant danger and in fear of being abducted, raped, or even forced into marriage.
According to NBC News, kidnapping young girls has been engrained as a marriage custom in Ethiopia. Nearly 70% of marriages in Ethiopia are forced by abduction, and they are generally practiced in the rural, impoverished areas where most of the of the country’s 71 million people live.
That’s why, when we heard about the following story, we just knew we had to share it.
A 12-year-old girl was abducted and beaten by men. The men were trying to force her into a marriage, and she had been missing for a whole week. With her family worried sick and the cops searching frantically for the little girl, it seemed like all hope was lost. But that was until three wild lions saved her life.
When the officers found the girl on the outskirts of Bita Genet, she was visibly beaten. More importantly, they found the little girl being guarded by three lions who seemed to have chased off her captors.
Sgt. Wodnimu Wedajo of the police force says, “They stood guard until we found her and then they just left her like a gift and went back into the forest.”
Stuart Williams, a wildlife expert, says that the little girl’s crying might have saved her life.
“A young girl whimpering could be mistaken for the mewing sound from a lion cub, which in turn could explain why they didn’t eat her.”
The whole town is hailing this story as a miracle.
“Everyone thinks this is some kind of miracle, because normally the lions would attack people.”
Regardless of whether this was divine intervention or simply coincidence, it’s heartwarming to hear of positive things happening in a country such as Ethiopia. The police have only found four of the seven men involved in this crime, and they are still on the search.
