Mother of gang-r@pe victim says her daughter can now ‘find peace’ after South African cops shot dead nine men who made her watch her daughter ‘s s3x attack

The mother of a young girl who was brutally gang-raped by armed thugs has spoken out after nine of the men were shot dead by South African police.

The life of the mother-of-two was turned upside down when the gang who terrorised their neighbourhood for a year broke their way into her home targeting her daughter.

The masked and armed gang came in through the kitchen door on March 28 and beat the 52-year-old mother and her two daughters ages 16 and 24 in a house robbery.

The men turned to the eldest daughter who they then began to strip and then gang rape while the terrified mother and younger sister had to watch and listen.

Less than a week later nine of the gang were killed in their HQ which had been turned according to locals into an ‘abattoir’ during a two-minute gun battle with cops.

Two of the gang are believed to have escaped and are being hunted down by the team.

Speaking after the operations, the mother of the raped girl praised the police action, saying: ‘My daughter will now get peace from this’.

The 52-year-old mum added: ‘I will be able to sleep at last and I know my daughter will have peace in her heart as she knows that she will never ever see those boys again.

‘It is so hard every day having to live with having seen your daughter raped in front of you’ she said.

The violent gang of 11 young men aged between 18 and 22 had been behind a vicious mini-crime wave in the suburb of Durban for over a year and were wanted for at least five murders.

They had used automatic weapons, pistols and machetes to bring fear to locals and forced three families out of their homes in Mariannhill which they took over as their gang HQ.

But on Wednesday their luck ran out when a team of firearms officers were sent in to deal with them after they gang-raped a helpless woman in front of her mum and sister.

The mother, who would not be named to protect her daughter, told reporters: ‘It won’t change what happened but it will bring closure to my daughter and to all of us as a family.

‘What makes it worse is these were young boys I saw grow up in front of me and then they found drugs and firearms and then in numbers they grew and became so powerful’.

The weeping mother said that the gang broke in last week at about midnight while they were asleep and demanded money and started taking the TV and their mobile phones.

She told TimesLive: ‘They wanted more money but I said I didn’t have it and then they began assaulting me and my 16-year-old daughter and pushed us both onto the bed.

‘While this was happening they were raping my older daughter and I could hear her screaming for help but I could do nothing as they were armed and assaulting us.

‘I don’t think my daughter will ever come back to stay here with me after what happened and I also think I’ll be coming back to my house any time soon – I may have to sell it.

‘My child is away staying with relatives as these guys were still roaming the area carrying out more crimes and she is undergoing counselling and was fearing they could return.

‘I am staying at a friend’s some way away from home and it is so painful to have your child raped while you are there and then forced to be separated from them by criminals’.

KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Col Robert Netshiunda said the suspects that made up the gang were on their radar for a number of serious and violent crimes in the area.

He said they included murder, rape, armed robberies, house robberies theft, and assault.

Col Netshiunda added: ‘The Provincial Stabilisation Team pounced on the gang in the early hours of Wednesday morning and the shoot-out happened when they opened fire on us.

‘The suspects have been behind a number of serious and violent crimes including murder but then raped this young girl and had made her mother watch during a house robbery.

‘Information was received that the gang were planning a hit and we received intelligence giving an address and 9 gang members were shot dead and a hunt is on for 2 others’.