Four Nuns among murdered nursing home residents in Aden, Yemen.

Posted on March 9, 2016 by bill

Nuns killed as gunmen storm elderly care home in Yemen

Attackers enter Catholic retirement home in the port city of Aden before opening fire and killing at least 16 people.

| Yemen,

A man inspects the elderly care home after it was attacked by gunmen in Aden on Friday [Wael Qubady/AP]
A man inspects the elderly care home after it was attacked by gunmen in Aden on Friday [Wael Qubady/AP]

Gunmen killed at least 16 people in an attack on a Catholic retirement home in Yemen’s port city of Aden that was established by Mother Teresa.

According to one official, the assailants entered the premises in Aden’s Sheikh Othman district after telling the guard they were visiting their mother, before storming the building and opening fire.

Friday’s casualty figures include four Catholic nuns from India, four local nurses, four security guards, and three cleaning staff, medical sources told Al Jazeera.

“They forced the men and women outside with their hands tied. We heard the sound of gunfire, and when we came out we saw them all dead in the garden,” resident Um Mohammed said.

Screams of elderly residents echoed from the home during the shooting rampage, witnesses told they AFP news agency, adding they saw bodies of dead workers with their arms tied behind their backs scattered on the floor.

The motive of the gunmen, who fled after the attack, was not immediately known. No group has yet claimed responsibility.

Pope Francis on Saturday described the killings as “diabolical”.

“His Holiness Pope Francis was shocked and profoundly saddened to learn of the killing of four Missionaries of Charity and 12 others at a home for the elderly in Aden,” the Vatican’s Secretary of State Pietro Parolin said.

The Argentine pontiff “prays that this pointless slaughter will awaken consciences, lead to a change of heart, and inspire all parties to lay down their arms and take up the path of dialogue”, Parolin said.

Aden was once a cosmopolitan city home to thriving Hindu and Christian communities but its small Christian population left long ago.

Unknown assailants have previously vandalised a Christian cemetery, torched a church and last year blew up an abandoned Catholic church.

About bill

Worked in the technical / engineering area as a Science Laboratory Technician and as an Aeronautics Engineer. The artistic side involves writing under the nom de plume of Billy Olsenn, his recently written play 'A Case of Wine' was staged by the players group Straight Make-Up at the 2012 Birr one act drama festival. It's next staging was in the one act circuit is in Cavan, at Maudebawn on Sat 10 Nov 2012. Then it was performed in the Bray, Co.Wicklow at the very popular one act festival in January 2013. Next play is FEAR. A dark tale about revenge on the cruel death of two pensioners by young thugs. Neighbours hatch a devious and dangerous plan to exact old-style revenge. Bill is a member of the Drama League of Ireland and his plays have been critically vetted and certified as original pieces of work by the DLI. Another literary project is that of commemoration of an aircraft crash on Djouce mountain in Wicklow in 1946. Bill wrote articles for the 50th, 60th and most recently the 70th anniversary, (12 Aug 2016) all were published in the Wicklow Times and ensured the survivors of the crash, all French Girl Guides, were not forgotten. Articles reproduced on this website. But mostly this site gives a more general European and specific French slant on popular and not so popular articles of French news, translated to English by the author. Each article is translated on a paragraph by paragraph basis so easy to read in either language and even possible to improve either language by comparison of the short English and French paragraphs. Amusez vous bien. The author is currently writing an easy to read technical aviation book centered around the Fokker 50. Another interest is that dealt with in another of Bill's websites www.realnamara.net, a Statue of the mother of God, Mary. It was erected in 1972 in Dublin, at the end of the Bull Wall near Clontarf, and my grandfather William Nelson, was the main instigator of that project. I give talks on the history of the statue and my grandfather's adventurous and dangerous life at sea. Technical assistance with each website is by J O'N.
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