According to hospital records,
95 percent of Azad Abdi Said’s body was burned in
Tuesday’s blast in Mogadishu, the deadliest al-Shabaab
attack since the insurgency in 2007.Nineteen of the
37 injured Somalis who were brought to Turkey for
treatment after the bombing are currently receiving
medical care at Numune Hospital. The others are being
treated at Yenimahalle State Hospital, also in Ankara.
The Cihan news agency reported Friday afternoon that the
injured Somalis said they did not want to return to
Somalia, one of the poorest and most restive places in
the world.
Al-Shabaab has identified the suicide bomber
responsible for the bombing that killed 72 people in
Mogadishu earlier this week as Abdullahi Nur. Nur, in a
video now being broadcast on a militant-run radio
station, said: “Now those who live abroad go to college
and never think about the hereafter. They never think
about the harassed Muslims.”
Abshir Mahdi Abukar, a Somali student injured in the
suicide attack, told Anatolia from his hospital bed that
he had been waiting outside the Ministry of Education
building to find out if he had won a scholarship to
Turkey, when the bomb detonated. The 20-year-old watched
his friends catch on fire, lose limbs and die before his
eyes. “We were just students who were aspiring to have a
bright future, but that disappeared when many students
were consigned to early graves. Now I’m worried about my
future. I didn’t ever think that someone would attack
us, as students, but it happened,” he said. Abukar said
he learned later from a friend that he had been awarded
a scholarship to receive an education in Turkey.
Muhammet Ojma Muhammet, an injured Somali receiving
care at Numune, told Anatolia that she was shopping with
her son when the bomb exploded outside the Education
Ministry building. While Muhammet said she was overcome
with gratitude to be receiving medical treatment in
Turkey, she added that she is anxious to return to
Somalia as soon as possible to find out the health
condition of her son. Muhammet, thanking Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Turkey for providing treatment,
said she felt “like this [Turkey] is her own country.”
The people of Somalia not only endure chronic
internal conflict but are also suffering from the worst
drought in the region in the last 60 years. Turkey,
which has collected more than TL 504 million in aid for
the struggling country, has promised not to abandon
Somalia in its time of need.
Somali journalist Farah Mohamed told Today’s Zaman in
an exclusive interview that he plans to lead a group of
Somali journalists to Turkey next month, as they hope to
write a book on the relationship between the two
countries. The book would also discuss Turkey’s role in
the recovery and future of Somalia. Mohamed said he met
with Turkish Ambassador to Kenya H.E. Tuncer Kayalar
last month to discuss writing such a book, and awaits
his response.
