The two Somali sisters were studying to be doctors. They were on a minibus on their way to university on Saturday morning when their world was shattered.
The 22-year- old Amina Mohamud the remaining sister is in critical condition. Her sister, 25-year-old Fadumo Mohamud, is dead.And their mother has called Saturday the “darkest day” of her life.
They were among people who were killed after a truck bomb at a busy security checkpoint detonated during rush hour.University students, made up most of the 79 people who lost their lives.
The mother of Amina and Fadumo, Sharifo Roble, watched in distress as her younger daughter was placed on a stretcher and wheeled toward a plane that would take more than a dozen other severely wounded people to Turkey for treatment.
“I sent my two daughters to university yesterday. One died in the blast and the other one is in severe condition,” Roble said. “I had to struggle with their upbringing because I was acting as both mother and father.” The sisters’ father died years ago.
Roble can only pray that her younger daughter one day will come home and continue her studies. Somalia needs it, she said.
Health authorities in Mogadishu have pleaded for blood donations to help treat the 125 people wounded in the bombing.
Nearly every student on the Mohamud sisters’ minibus was killed. The truck bomb exploded next to it after police at the checkpoint blocked the truck from entering the city, Somalia’s police chief said.
Families across Mogadishu held funerals the same day with international condemnation pouring in.Pope Francis on Sunday appealed to the world for prayers.
