November 8 2008

Mortars hit SOS Children's Village Mogadishu

08/11/2008 - Yesterday in the morning, two mortar shells hit the SOS Children's Village in Somalia's capital Mogadishu.

The village has been empty of SOS families for almost a year after stray mortar shells landed in the compound and an SOS aunt was killed. However security and maintenance staff still live on the compound. None of them were hurt. According to Ahmed Ibrahim, director of SOS Children's Villages Somalia, the first mortar destroyed parts of one family house, while the second destroyed three metres of the boundary wall.


The incident came about when insurgents carried out attacks on both Somali and Ethiopian troops. As the attack came from the vicinity of the children's village, the government and Ethiopian forces retaliated in that direction, resulting in stray mortars landing in the village compound.

The SOS Hospital was not directly affected although patients and staff fled the facility. Dr. Abdullahi, the medical director who lives on the hospital compound, reports that the situation is now calm and the medical staff and patients have returned to the hospital.