Ten years ago on December 3, a suicide bomber attacked a graduation ceremony at Shamo Hotel, one of Mogadishu’s main hotels. Fourteen medical students, lecturers, and doctors from Banadir University were among 30 people who were killed, more than 50 others injured. Dr. Osman Mohamud Dufle was on the podium when the suicide bomber detonated the bomb. “The explosion occurred right in front of me,” says Dr. Dufle, a physician and a member of the parliament. Before going to the podium, his friend, Higher Education Minister Dr. Ibrahim Hassan Addow, asked if he could speak before him as he was rushing to another event. But the event organizer, Dr. Mohamed Mohamud Biday, intervened and convinced Dr. Addow he will speak next. The bomber detonated the explosion in the space between them. Dufle survived, Addow died. Also killed were Health Minister Qamar Aden Ali, Education Minister Ahmed Aden Wayel, and Youth & Sports Minister Suleiman Olad Roble, who succumbed to his injuries a few days later. Two journalists and one of the country’s leading embryologists, Dr. Mohamed Adam Shahid, were among the dead.= “That has particular memory for me,” says Dufle. “To see the colleagues I was sitting alongside two minutes ago, lifeless in front of me, it’s a shocking memory.”
Dr. Biday, a cardiologist who was among the seriously injured, thought it was a mortar attack. He tried to get up and run, fearing that a second mortar round may be on the way, but he could not move. “I was seriously injured, I could not stand,” he said. “I suffered multiple fractures; I was carried in a sheet.” He was among 20 badly wounded evacuated abroad for a medical emergency. Dr. Biday only learned the extent of the tragedy after 24 hours. “It was a very painful day. A dark day.”….
