Mother of stabbed girl: 'I want to bury my daughter in Eritrea'

Unless Tsehainesh Medhani wins permission on compassionate grounds, she could be arrested, or refused permission to leave Eritrea when she wants to return to London.

She and Arsema, son Robel, now 13, and other daughter Faruz, now 11, came to Britain as asylum-seekers five years ago. The fact that she is now prepared to set foot - for even a short time - in Eritrea is a measure of how determined she is to have her eldest child buried in the country of her birth.

Arsema’s father Dawit Hayle is distraught at her death. But he is in the Eritrean army and unable to travel to Britain to comfort his wife and surviving children.

Arsema's mother Tsehainesh, second left, at the scene of the murder. Now she wants her daughter to be laid to rest in Eritrea in Africa

A family friend said: ‘All Arsema’s mother wants is to take her precious daughter back to their homeland. She needs to grieve in the Eritrean way with her friends and relatives and lay Arsema to rest in the family plot. She risked a lot to find her way to Britain and a new life. She left her beloved husband in Africa and she has been through a lot to find safety for her children.

‘She feels completely destroyed by this but still has the courage to do what she knows is right. She needs to take Arsema home and I can’t imagine anyone or anything being able to stop her.’

Murdered: Arsema Dawit's mother wants her body to be buried in Eritrea in Africa

Mrs Medhani is appealing for police to release Arsema’s body to her as soon as forensic investigations are complete. She is also asking Eritrea’s representatives in London to grant compassionate dispensation in her tragic case.

The East African country she fled is hostile towards those who reject it for a better life in the West. President Isaias Afwerki forbids any political opposition.

Her husband Dawit did his 18 months’ military service long ago but the army refuses to demobilise him. Now he faces death daily in fierce border clashes.

Mrs Medhani, who married Dawit after they had fought together on the frontline to win independence from Ethiopia, fled to Britain with the children to escape crushing poverty. The family were assigned a flat in one of Lambeth Council’s ‘hard-to-let’ blocks near Waterloo Station and granted benefits.

Arsema was doing well at school and sang regularly at her church choir. Her mother said in a statement after the death: ‘I have lost a precious, beautiful and much loved daughter. She was kind, generous and loving. I feel as though a light has gone out of my life.’

Mrs Medhani will not leave home for 12 days as she mourns in the Eritrean Orthodox Church tradition, being visited by relatives who come to pray with her. 

Arsema is the 16th teenager to be killed violently in London this year.

A 21-year-old student from Eritrea has been charged with her murder.