MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) – The two Somali sisters were studying to be doctors. They were in a minibus on their way to university on Saturday morning when their world exploded.
Now, 22-year-old Amina Mohamud is in critical condition. Her sister, 25-year-old Fadumo Mohamud, is dead. Their mother calls Saturday the darkest day of her life.
Families wailed in Mogadishu on Sunday after a truck bomb at a busy security checkpoint detonated during rush hour. University students, the future of a country rebuilding from decades of conflict, made up most of the 79 people killed.
It was the worst attack in Mogadishu, often the target of the al-Shabab extremist group, in more than two years. International condemnation has poured in. Pope Francis on Sunday appealed to the world for prayers.
And the mother of Amina and Fadumo, Sharifo Roble, was distraught 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 desperately needed care.