Hiiraan Online

AbdiNasir Mohamed Guled
Friday, December 04, 2009

I was in the Hotel Shamo here Thursday morning to cover the graduation of the second class of doctors, engineers and professors to leave Benadir University -- an image of Somalia different from the typical
one, war.

After hours of tape-recording speeches, I felt thirsty and moved 10 steps toward the door.

Suddenly, the hall shook and I heard a PAW! sound from the front of the ceremony, where most government officials and dignitaries were sitting. I got down on the ground and looked back. Dozens of people were on the ground under a huge cloud of smoke. Others were stampeding to the exit for safety.

I saw the government officials' chairs empty and bloody, and many people badly wounded. The ceremony hall became very dark, and seemed like a slaughterhouse, for the blood flowing on the ground.

A young man rushed to pick up his older brother, who had graduated that day, but he was already dead. The young man cried and cried. A girl who looked like a student draped her girlfriend's purse around
her injured leg as she carried her to safety.

I tried to run forward but stampeding people pushed me aside, so I walked carefully to avoid them. I thought they might kill me, since everyone was terrified and couldn't restrain themselves.

I got out of the hall, leaving my recording equipment behind. Soldiers started firing in the air to make their presence known. Other soldiers were picking up victims.

One older woman, crying over her son, sat down alongside him. His wounds were serious. She was talking to him, but his only answer was his breathing.

I ran and ran. My phone kept ringing but I couldn't pick it up, I was so terrified. People at the gate were amazed to see me. There was so much blood on my clothes, they thought I had been harmed. When they
asked me what happened, all I got out was, "I can't talk."

I saw my neighbor, a mother, rushing to the hotel to find her two sons who were graduating. She learned that both were dead.

It has been hours since the time of the blast, and I haven't been able to eat because I keep seeing the image of what happened, of people, hoping to be doctors to serve the country, sent to the grave.