Italian authorities have arrested five African migrants, including two Nigerians, in connection with the alleged kidnapping and gang rape of a Colombian tourist in Rome, Italy.
According to a report by the Daily Express on Thursday, the 32-year-old woman was approached on May 19 by a man who allegedly offered to sell her hashish outside a restaurant in the Italian capital.
Investigators said the suspect persuaded the tourist to leave the area before she was taken in a van to an abandoned building on the eastern outskirts of Rome, where she was allegedly held against her will for three days.
During her captivity, the woman was reportedly subjected to repeated sexual assaults, drugged and threatened by her attackers.
The victim eventually managed to escape and was later discovered partially clothed on a roadside by a passerby, who immediately alerted emergency services.
Following investigations, police carried out a raid on the abandoned property and detained five suspects.
They were identified as Gambian nationals Saidykhan Lamin, 29, and Karamba Kanteh, 38; Malian national Harouna Traore, 43; and Nigerians Isibor Wisdom, 29, and Paul Nwabueze, 39.
The suspects have been charged with aggravated gang rape, with prosecutors citing the victim’s vulnerable condition as an aggravating factor. All five remain in custody.
Italian authorities said efforts are continuing to track down additional suspects believed to have been involved in the crime, including the individual accused of luring the woman from the restaurant and the driver who transported her to the abandoned building.
Police also disclosed that 22 undocumented migrants were found during the operation at the property. Eleven of them have reportedly been transferred to detention facilities as deportation proceedings continue.
