To imagine the scale of last Saturday’s terrorist attack in Mogadishu, think about two truck bombs exploding within minutes during rush hour in the heart of downtown Toronto.Buildings for blocks around Yonge and Dundas Sts. would crumble, cars and pedestrians incinerated.The blasts Oct. 14 in Mogadishu’s commercial and entertainment hub were so powerful some of the victims may never be identified and the missing never found. The death toll is just an estimate. There are more than 350 dead, and as many are grievously injured and missing, making this one of the deadliest terrorist attacks since Sept. 11, 2001. After 9/11, Manhattan’s streets became a gallery of the dead. “Have You Seen” posters lined every post, fence and wall, the faces of hundreds of victims staring out. The search for the missing and tributes to the dead in Mogadishu have been virtual, pictures and posters spreading online. A photo of medical student Maryam Abdullahi, 21, was one of the first to go viral. Her father flew from London that day to attend her graduation, but instead was in Mogadishu for her funeral. Marian Omer, another victim, worked at the ministry of planning and was described by many as a “rising star.” Mohamoud Elmi, the director general of humanitarian affairs; human rights activist Yassin Juma; the four Ayaanle brothers, who ran a popular shop in the Safari Hotel; a school bus of children stuck in traffic. For those who equate Somalia with endless war, piracy or the 1993 U.S. intervention known as Black Hawk Down, in which 18 American service members and hundreds of Somalis were killed, the truck bombings were a merely a tremor in country wracked by earthquakes.But some are calling this attack Somalia’s 9/11. Which means its impact will spread well beyond the crater the bombing has left, where the search for the remains of the dead continues. If a country can break your heart, then Somalia has broken mine. There are few places ...
|
