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September 18, 2006
Somalia: Nuns Evacuated From Islamist Mogadishu
News from today's Monday edition of South Africa's Sunday Times relates that three Italian Catholic nuns have been evacuated from the Somali capital, following the death of their colleague Suor Leonella, who was shot three times in the back on Saturday.
The three nuns flew with the body of SIster Leonella to Nairobi, Kenya. Earlier the nuns had resisted calls to leave in the interests of their safety. They all worked at the SOS Hospital in the Huriwa district of Mogadishu. It was there that gunmen murdered Sister Leonella.
Mario Rafaelli, the Italian envoy to the interim Somali government said: "The Italian nuns who were serving the SOS Hospital were brought last night to Nairobi".
Somalia had been a former Italian colony, and 65-year old Leonella had been one of the longest serving members of the Roman Catholic Church working in the country. She will be buried in Kenya, a request she had made in her life.
Frederico Lombardi, head of the Vatican press office, said Leonella's murder was "horrible" and expressed hope that it would stay as an "isolated act".
One man is in custody, and an official from the Islamist courts said that it is believed that the man was guilty of shooting Leonella. His accomplice is being sought.
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Car Bombs In Baidoa
In separate news, AKI reports that today the president of the interim government, Abdullahi Yusuf (pictured, left), survived after two car bombs were set off outside the parliament building in Baidoa. The blasts happened as he left the building. Eight people were killed and injured several more.
Al Jazeera TV said: "It was an assassination attempt on the president," quoting the foreign minister of the interim government, Ismayl Harrah.
Some of the president's retinue were injured.
Though there are currently peace talks underway between the Islamists and the interim government, which was set up under the supervision of the UN in 2004, there has been fighting recently.
Islamists are trying to take control of the southern city of Kisimayo, which is currently controlled by a minister in the interim government.
The head of the Islamists' Supreme Council, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, is widely believed to be an associate of Al Qaeda. There is no secret of the personal animosity between him and the interim president, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed. When Aweys ran the quasi-terror group Al-Ittihad al-Islami", Abdullahi Yusuf managed to expel the Islamists of this group from the province of Puntland by force in the 1990s.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at September 18, 2006 11:48 AM
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