SOS Children’s Village in Somalia under attack

Last Friday (07 November) at around 8.30am East Africa time, two mortar shells hit the SOS Children's Village in Mogadishu following an insurgent attack on government and Ethiopian forces.

Since December 2007, mothers and children from the Village have been living in temporary accommodation following a heavy mortar attack which killed an SOS Aunt. Thankfully, none of the security and maintenance staff who do still live and work in the Village were hurt.

According to Ahmed Ibrahim, the National Director of SOS Children's Villages Somalia, mortars destroyed part of a family house and part of the surrounding Village wall.

The SOS Hospital was not affected although patients and staff fled the facility. Dr. Abdullahi, the Medical Director who lives in the hospital grounds, reports that the situation is now calm and all medical staff and patients have returned to the hospital.

In August, an SOS mother was seriously injured and a former SOS youth killed in two separate attacks. Our main concern now is to ensure the safety of all our staff, mothers and children and we hope that they will be able to return back to the Village soon.

At least one in 10 Somalis has been forced out of their home by conflict, as Islamist insurgents who ruled the country briefly in 2006 battle against the Ethiopian-backed government. Years of anarchy since the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, combined with frequent drought and rampant inflation have turned Somalia into the world's worst humanitarian crisis.