March 27 2006
Fierce gun battles in Mogadishu injure former SOS youth
27/03/2006 - After two days of fierce fighting in Mogadishu the situation is beginning to calm down according to the village director of SOS Children's Village Mogadishu, Osman Shukri. Media reports indicate that over 60 people have died in the fighting between militia and Islamic authorities, and many more have been injured. One of the injured was an ex SOS youth who was visiting the village, which is
located just a few kms from the scene of the fighting. The man was shot in the leg and was rushed to the Alhayat Hospital where a bullet was removed. "He is stable now", said Osman Shukri "and will be discharged today". He added that all the village children and staff are safe and healthy although people living around the village have deserted their homes. "We are getting reports that the fighting has stopped", Osman Shukri said. "We hope things will be calm as from today", he concluded.
The SOS Children's Village Mogadishu has been open since 1985 and has twelve family houses. It also encompasses a kindergarten, a primary and secondary school, a maternity hospital, an emergency paediatric unit, an emergency feeding programme and a nursing school. Throughout the civil war and the following years without any government, the village has always been open. At one stage SOS Children's Villages was the only international NGO working in Mogadishu and thus is well respected within the local community.