By Sunday Oyinloye
My sincere condolence to the families of those who lost their loved ones in the recent double truck bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia, the worst in the history of that country which claimed over 300 lives and left hundreds of others injured with many still missing. It borne the pattern of attacks of Al-Shabab known to be the evil troubling the country located in the Horn of Africa. The group had in the past carried out deadly attacks in neighbouring Kenya.
The activities of the terror group has forced millions of Somalis to flee their country over the years and seek refuge in foreign lands. Until the madness and unthinkable started in Syria, Somalia was always in the news over one form of attack or the other. As a matter of fact, for many years, the country was without government. For a country that has contended with drought many times, I believe what should occupy the minds of citizens of such a nation is how to ensure food security, unfortunately, few Somalis who belong to the evil group called Al-Shabab have repeatedly wreaked havoc in the poor country.
Go to Europe and you will see the number of Somalis who entered as asylum seekers. Though Europe is a place where people have opportunities to actualize their dreams, there is no place like home. The truth is that citizens of a particular country that hosts asylum seekers are very familiar with the history of the country where asylum seekers come from and they are discriminated against in some cases. The reason why some people will not want to sit beside citizens of a particular country in a train, tram or bus may not be entirely racism ,but fear of unknown.
I was in a particular country where Somalis community secretariat was located in an old school building( waiting for demolition as I was told) which housed some African and Caribbean churches . The church I attended in that country was directly on top of Somalis secretariat. The truth is that I sometimes skipped church services because of the fear of unknown and even most times when I was in the church, my faith failed. The reason is simple, what normally went through my mind then was, what if any of the Somalis was Al-Shabab member who managed to escape to Europe? Not that I don’t like Somalis, I like them like people from other parts of the world, but the evil group called Al-Shabab created that suspicion in me. Before I hear you say that is discrimination, it is not. Like any human being who is security conscious, I don’t joke with my personal safety.
Interestingly, in that same country, I also experienced few situations where peoples’ countenance changed towards me whenever I introduced myself as a Nigerian. They were scared because of the stories they hear on daily basis about the activities of the dreaded Boko-Haram, a terror group that has killed thousands of people in my country. Some would tell me directly that they will never visit my country for anything even when I tried to convince them that the activities of Boko Haram is limited to a particular zone in Nigeria. I cannot blame them because it wasn’t like that in the past.
Back to the issue of Al- Shabab, the illegal and devilish group has caused too much troubles for Somalia, instead of water for irrigation to ensure food security, they have continually wet the land in Somalia with innocent blood. They have feasted enough on the flesh of innocent children and women. Unfortunately, Somalia does not have a strong and well organized military to wipe the evil gang, therefore, I want to call on African Union and United Nations to provide more military and intelligence support to deal with Al-Shabab once and for all.
I will call this latest attack a massacre, not just a bomb attack. The perpetrators must be made to answer for their evil against humanity, Al-Shabab must be wiped out if Somalia must have peace. Enough of this madness from a heartless group. Somalia must survive.
