SOS mother injured in Somalia fighting
01/09/2008
Following another week of intense fighting in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, it’s with great sadness to report that an SOS mother has been seriously injured and a former SOS youth killed in two separate attacks.
At 10.00am local time on Sunday 31 August, fighting broke out in the Medina area of Mogadishu where some of the SOS families had been relocated. Upon hearing the shooting, SOS mother Fahamu Mue Hashi, hurried to get her children safely inside and out of harms way but in the process was hit in the chest by a stray bullet. She was taken to hospital and after having been donated blood by an SOS youth, is on the road to recovery.
The SOS families were evacuated from the SOS Children's Village last December after the Village was hit by mortar fire and an SOS aunt was killed.
In a separate incident, a former SOS youth, Alas Ahmed Gurey, was shot dead last Thursday evening (28 August) in Afgoye, 22 km from Mogadishu. He was visiting an SOS satellite clinic at the time when he was approached by thieves. Resisting them, he was shot in the neck and died at the SOS clinic shortly afterwards. Mr Gurey was 26 had been employed as a gardener at the SOS Hospital for two years.
The satellite clinic in Afgoye, run by SOS Children, is helping many children and families displaced by the conflict. It includes a mother and baby clinic as well as an outpatient’s clinic. The team can often see up to 300 people every day who are in desperate need of help.
Somalia has been without an effective central government since 1991 and years of fighting combined with frequent drought and rampant inflation have turned Somalia into the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Our main concern now is to ensure the safety of all our staff, mothers and children and we hope that they will be able to return back to the Village soon.