A 12-month-old girl died in San Pedro Sula, the second largest city in Honduras, allegedly after being raped in the custody of the Directorate for Children, Adolescents and Family (Dinaf), whose director, Lizeth Coello, said this Saturday that the incident is being investigated.

The little girl died in the last few hours at the Mario Catarino Rivas Hospital in San Pedro Sula, in the north of the country, allegedly as a result of the rape and injuries caused in a home associated with Dinaf, according to her relatives.

One of the girl's relatives told reporters that three months ago the minor was taken into Dinaf custody, allegedly due to severe malnutrition.

Apparently, the girl was transferred on Friday to the state hospital, where the doctors would have observed some signs that the little girl was raped, and hours later she died. The girl's family demanded that the authorities investigate what happened and justice so that no other child is a victim of rape.

The director of Dinaf indicated that the institution has launched an investigation into the incident and confirmed that the minor had been in state custody for three months.. “All the details of what happened in the home and the reasons why the minor entered the care center are being compiled,” Coello stressed.

He said that he has appointed a Dinaf team to carry out the corresponding inquiries to clarify what happened in the home, and commented that the girl was admitted to the hospital allegedly due to a pneumonia problem.

Between 2021 and 2022, Honduras registered around 3,112 complaints of child sexual abuse of minors between the ages of 8 and 15, and most of them remain unpunished, according to official figures.