Meeting with friends
On Wednesday, the 14th of June 2017, I had a plan to meet with some of my friends at Pizza House after breaking the iftar to discuss the upcoming Fermaato Annual Iftar in 2017. Fermaato Annual Iftar is a yearly communal iftar dinner organized by the youth of Mogadishu. I managed in time to take a pie and a cup of tea to break my fast after the evening prayer at my home, so I could go to the restaurant quickly.
I vividly remember the remarkable words said by my wife as I was on the move, “Abdiweli, please take a shower before you leave, you were fasting all the day and you shouldn’t meet your friends with such appearance.” Reluctantly, I replied with a word I mostly use, “Don’t worry dear, if I don’t take shower for five days, there won’t be any change on my body at all”. She smiled and said, “good luck”.
I came to Pizza House then and phoned my friends to check on the sitting area. They told me that they are on the way and I should wait. I sat at a place near the entrance gate, and by watching the beauty of the restaurant, I saw some people having Iftar sitting in groups, while some other young people were taking photos. However, after 5 minutes, my friend Ahmed Abdirahman Ahmed (Ahmedwali) called me back and requested whether I could stay and wait on the rooftop of the restaurant as they were coming in 10 minutes. Amazingly, there are words of action that you don’t like in the first place but can save you later. And those words actually saved me. I immediately moved to the rooftop and started enjoying the warm weather as I was waiting for my friends. I then received a call from my mother so to know my current situation. She calls me every evening prayer during Ramadan to exchange a kind words and that evening was not an exception.
Disaster time
As I have cut the phone with my mother, I suddenly fell down from the chair and assumed that someone hit me in the back. I looked back and saw smoke raising into the sky with lots of debris falling down on me. I have then realised that an explosion had occurred. A huge one. I checked my self of any injuries but couldn’t make sure if there were any due to the light becoming dim at that time. Immediately, shooting started from the entrance of the restaurant. We all started jumping from the rooftop, except for those who were hit by the explosion and/or bullets.
I jumped from the second floor and fell down in the kitchen of the restaurant. I ran towards the wedding hall of the restaurant which was at the back. There was no scape route at the back and I found myself in the centre of the area where shooting was everywhere with heavy gun shots and no where to run. People were shouting and crying out: "Laa Illaaha Illalaahu," meaning “There is no God but Allah”. Worried about my situation, Ahmedweli gave me a call to know about my situation but I asked him the same questions as I knew that he was on his way to the front gate where the disaster happened. He told me that he was fine and I told him that I was feeling some pain and I was not sure how I was.
I sat down at the wedding hall and quickly started checking my injury with the help of my phone’s light. I have then realized that both my right leg and left hand were bleeding but I was not sure of what exactly happened to me due to circumstances I was facing at that time. Besides me, there were a young girl and two men who were all severely wounded crying for help. I couldn’t say a word let alone trying to help them as I was also hurt and feeling some pain.
Unfortunately, we anticipated that the shooting was advancing to our way and the sound of the gunfire was getting louder minute by minute. The young girl was crying loudly, but fortunately we were accompanied by another two men running from the bullets. We asked for their assistance to the little girl. One of the two men took the little girl on his shoulders and jumped over a wall of approximately 6-meters long. She was safe. He was safe. I recognized the other man and he did also recognize me. He provided me with help and even tried to stop my bleeding. He felt unsafe of the area where were hiding in. He took us into another hiding room with which I met nine other people hiding in there. Five of them were suffering from slight wounds, all crying with no help.
Reaction from the survivors
We were then in a dark room. People were having different feelings, reacting in different ways. Two young girls were particularly worried about their mothers. One girl’s mother was living with diabetes. The mothers were not aware of the location of their daughters. They didn’t know that their daughters were trapped at Pizza House, under a fire and at the same time wounded. The girls were thinking of how their mothers would react hearing the news of the injury or death of their daughters. One of the Pizza House staff was in shock, praying and reading the Quran loudly.
The only lights we could see were coming from the bullets flying through the rooms. I was lying on the ground with blood coming from my body as the gunshots were getting louder and louder. I couldn't say a word. My phone never stopped ringing. My family, wife, friends and relatives were all calling to know about my situation. As my phone was the only phone in the room for usage, everyone wanted to call his family which sometimes put our lives at risk.
Twenty minutes to die or survive
One of the friends in the room started calling for outside help. We were then told that two attackers were right in the next room to us. We received messages from the outside that one of the attackers was too close to our room that we had to shut down the phone. We were told to wait for the rescue team that was coming in 20 minutes. The rescue soldiers were to engage with the attackers to rescue us. In the next minutes, we anticipated the worst as we were in a life and death situation. We were prepared for the worst and asked everyone to shut up their mouth and keep silent. In those long twenty minutes, we lost hope, prepared ourselves for death, with everyone uttering, “Laillah Illahu Muhamadu Rasullallah”. In the minutes that followed, the exchange of the gunfire between the attackers that were approaching to our room to kill us and the security forces escalated. As it deepened, I was only thinking about what my family would go through after my death.
Rescue operation
Fortunately, we received a final call that relieved everything. That we were safe for a while and the soldiers would like to come in to rescue us from the scene. Everyone was delighted of the relieving communication through my mobile phone. They then came to a window nearby, signalled to us with their lights and instantly started breaking down a section of the wall near the window.
The wounded and the women were first moved to the rescue scene. We were finally rescued from that one room, although many more were trapped in other rooms and parts of the restaurant. We were to a hospital for checking and treatment.
Surprisingly, the joke I exchanged with my wife earlier in the evening became the reality of my life. I didn’t take a shower for the next five days of my life as I was admitted to a hospital.
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