Silvia Romano is finally free and has returned to Italy
Silvia Romano is free. Long last. The Italian aid worker kidnapped on the night of November 20, 2018 in Chakama, Kenya, where she served at the non-profit organization Africa Milele, returned to Italy after 18 months of imprisonment. Thanks to a masterful operation resulting from the collaboration between Italian intelligence and Turkish secret services, Silvia was released from her jailers and landed in Ciampino at 2 pm on Sunday 10 May. I wear a tunic reminiscent of traditional Somali robes, latex gloves and a mask. Silvia who gets off the plane appears calm and shows the smile of someone who has made it and is about to hug her parents again. Mom, dad and sister Giulia are there waiting for her anxiously. The tension is palpable and is released in the power of a hug. A hug that takes a few minutes, but seems to last forever. Papa Enzo bows twice and welcomes her to Italy. Mother Francesca lowers her mask and, in spite of social distancing, kisses the daughter she feared she had lost. The shot goes around the world and becomes the symbolic image of Mother's Day 2020.
"I'm fine, physically and mentally": his statements so far
Silvia looks serene, but it is impossible to deduce the flurry of emotions she is feeling from some simple images. It's still too early. Probably the girl will carry a trauma that, for those who have not experienced it on their own skin, is difficult to conceive. Silvia reassures everyone by declaring that she is fine, “I am very happy after a long time to be back” and, during the four hours of interrogation in front of the anti-terrorism prosecutor Sergio Colaiocco, she says that she has not suffered any violence. “They never beat me or forced me to marry. They fed me regularly and immediately promised me that they would not kill me ”. Just as she was never forced to convert to Islam, a religion of which she is a believer today. “It was my free choice,” the girl firmly maintains and explains that “it happened in the middle of my captivity. I asked to read the Koran, they brought me one that had the Italian text on the front, this allowed me to understand better and in the end choose the religion ”. A legitimate choice on which speculation should be avoided. We weren't there with her, we still don't know how things really went, no one, then, arrogates the right to shoot sentences comfortably seated behind their computer.
"I was lonely and desperate"
It was tough at first. Silvia was alone and scared. “I was desperate, I was always crying. The first month was terrible. I was always in a room alone, I slept on the floor on some sheets ”. In these days, more and more details of what was a year and a half imprisonment between Kenya and Somalia will gradually emerge. For the moment, why not avoid conjectures and inferences - which, you know, leave the time they find - and simply rejoice? Goire for a rediscovered freedom, for a success of the Italian state and for the return home of one of our compatriots who, even before being Islamic, even before being called Aysha, even before wearing "non-Western" clothes, is a young woman distinguished by the courage to leave privileges and leave, driven by the desire to help the least, at their home.
Who is Silvia Romano and why she left for Africa
Silvia Romano is a 23-year-old girl who, after graduating from a school for linguistic mediators for security and social defense with a paper on human trafficking, leaves for Kenya. The first time he sets foot on African soil is on 22 July 2018 and he stays there for a month. During this time spent in Africa he collaborated with the Onlus Orphan's dreams, an orphanage located in Likoni, in Keya. After a short period in Italy, on 5 November 2018 Silvia lands again in Kenya, this time in Chakama, a village 80 km from Malindi. The girl leaves with another non-profit organization, the Africa Milele non-profit organization, dedicated to welcoming and educating children marginalized by society. On November 20, 2018, the Italian aid worker was kidnapped by a group of 5 armed men who, shortly before, had opened fire in the city market, wounding five people.
