THE Karas Region education directorate is investigating the alleged rape of nine boys at the Nowak Primary School at Tses.

A school counsellor was questioning the boys this week, The Namibian was informed.

The investigation started after a Grade one boy boarding at the school hostel reported to a teacher that he had been sexually molested by older boys.

Eight other first-graders then claimed that they too had been sodomised.

One of the victims was sent home for a week. A close friend of the boy's family said: "The boy was so traumatised that he was not even prepared to talk about the incident."

According to the friend, the boy told his grandmother that the boy who had raped him had threatened to assault him if he told anyone about the incident.

Allegations of sexual molestation at the school hostel are not new, the source claimed.

The Karas education director, /Awebahe Johannes //Hoëseb, declined to comment, saying the matter was too sensitive.

According to //Hoëseb, he and some senior education managers will visit the school today to get to the bottom of the allegations.