Slain nun 'specifically targeted'

2006-09-18 15:20

Nairobi - An elderly nun who was gunned down at a hospital, where she worked in Somalia's capital was "specifically targeted before being executed by gunmen lying in wait", said a hospital official on Monday.

Willy Huber, regional director of the Austrian-funded hospital, where 65-year-old Sister Leonella had worked for four years, said the killing was not random.

Huber, who headed the SOS Kinderdorf organisation in East Africa, said: "She had no chance. It was like an execution."

There was no claim of responsibility for Sunday's shooting, but many feared it could be linked to worldwide Muslim anger toward Pope Benedict XVI.

In a speech last week, the pope quoted a medieval text that characterised some of the teachings of Islam's founder as "evil and inhuman" and referred to spreading Islam "by the sword".

Gunmen 'targeted her'

Sister Leonella was shot in the back four times by pistol-wielding attackers as she left the Austrian-run SOS hospital. Her bodyguard also was slain.

The two had been walking from the Mogadishu hospital to the sister's home, where three other nuns were waiting to have lunch with her.

Huber said: "The gunmen specifically targeted her. They were waiting for her. As she crossed the road they opened fire. We had no warning of this."

He spoke after accompanying the Italian nun's body to Nairobi, Kenya, late on Sunday. He said she will be buried in the capital later this week.

Three other nuns who also worked at the hospital were pulled out of the Somali capital, and no decision had been made on their return.

Her family said Sister Leonella, whose birth name was Rosa Sgorbati, had lived and worked in Kenya and Somalia for 38 years.

Swedish journalist killed

Like many foreigners, she travelled with a bodyguard in this Horn of Africa nation, which slid into chaos after warlords overthrew Somalia's longtime dictator in 1991. A Swedish journalist, Martin Adler, was shot dead in June during a demonstration in Mogadishu.

An Islamic militia seized control of Mogadishu in recent months and had extended its control over much of southern Somalia, challenging a weak, United Nations-backed government that had not been able to exert any power outside its base in Baidoa, 250km from the capital.

The militia had imposed strict religious rule in the areas under its sway, and its Islamic courts were credited with bringing a semblance of order, but many in the West feared a Taliban-style regime could emerge.

Several witnesses blamed Sunday's shooting on the pope's remarks.

Ashe Ahmed Ali, one of the many who witnessed the shooting, said: "I am sure the killers were angered by the pope's speech in which he attacked our prophet."

Huber said he didn't know why the nun had been targeted, but it could have been prompted by Muslim anger over the pope's remarks.

- AP