Shukri Abdi

What happened to Shukri Abdi?

 

The body of Shukri Abdi, who first came to the UK in January 2017, was found in the River Irwell in Bury, Greater Manchester in June 2019. A group of children were with her at the river in the period before she died. 

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Shukri came to the UK with her mother and four siblings after they fled the conflict in Somalia. Shukri was born and brought up in a refugee camp in Kenya. She and her family were brought to the UK as part of the vulnerable persons resettlement scheme in which refugees are vetted by the UN. Only the most vulnerable individuals and families are accepted on to the scheme. 

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The children connected with the case can be referred to only as Child One, Child Two, Child Three, Child Four and Child Five. Child Four and Child Three, both tried to save Shurki's life.  

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Child Three and Child Four agreed to go to the river with Child One, Child Two and Shukri. They said Child One, Child Two and Shukri were friendly towards each other. They said that Shukri seemed “not really bothered” about going to the river, and that when Child One asked Shukri about her swimming ability, she replied that she was “all right”. Child Four said that Shukri seemed untroubled in the deeper water when she had her arm on Child One’s shoulder, but appeared to get into difficulties when Child One let go of her and swam back to the other children. “Then Shukri’s head went under and came back up. I think she was trying to say something but she couldn’t, trying to call out but she couldn’t,” Child Four told the court. Child one laughed upon seeing Shurkri clearly drowning. Child One claimed to have told her: “If you don’t get into the water, I’m going to kill you.” “Child One was laughing for a couple of minutes,” Child Four told the inquest. “Child One was still laughing when me and Child Three were trying to help. Child One was still laughing when I jumped in.” Child Four said that neither Child One nor Child Two were doing anything while Shukri was drowning, and that Child One only stopped laughing when the police came.  

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Police were called to the River Irwell at 8 p.m. An underwater search team recovered Abdi's body shortly before midnight. Her mother, who had begun searching for her at 4 p.m., was informed of her death at 1 a.m. Reports at the time in The Telegraph and The Times stated that Abdi was playing with two friends at the time, despite her mother believing the girls to have not been friends of hers. Two children at the scene had seen Abdi disappear in the river. 

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Her mother reported that Abdi was being bullied in the weeks prior to her death. Over the past year, she had made complaints to her daughter's school, which she believed the school did not take seriously.   

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Abdi's mother expressed initial confusion over how Abdi had ended up in the river. Her uncle reported that as she couldn't swim, she "wouldn't even go near the edge" of bodies of water, calling the incident "out of character". This had led many people to believe that Shurkri was drowned by the force of the children she was with. 

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Inquests by the Greater Manchester Police in July 2019 and February 2020 were adjourned, the latter not yet scheduled to resume. Broad Oak High School where Shurkri attended school, launched an internal investigation into the subject of bullying. The Independent Office for Police Conduct completed an investigation over a complaint that they were poorly treated for racially motivated reasons, which is yet to be published.  

 

What can we do? 

 

1. Share her story 

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