Diabolical Attack: Nuns Slaughtered At Yemen Nursing Home
Friday, a nursing home was the site of a diabolical attack that left 16 people dead.
Yemen is a war torn country in the Middle East. For years it has been the site of a bloody rebellion. Houthi groups protesting in the country have been stirring up unrest and, in 2015, managed to force President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi out of the capital city. Since then, the Yemen President has changed the capital city to Aden, a city on Yemen’s southern coast.
The change has not been enough to prevent the kind of diabolical attack that took place on Friday.
Four terrorists stormed the Catholic-run nursing home. They went door-to-door, gathering up the residents and employees one-by-one. The four employees they managed to get to during the attack were nuns that were part of the Missionaries of Charity, which was founded 60 years ago by the soon-to-be-sainted Mother Teresa.
One at a time, they shot each of their victims. According to ABC, witnesses reported hearing the screams of the elderly and missionaries during the attack and between the shots.
The nuns that were killed in the attack were not from the area. They were there simply to complete the jobs they believed were a part of their mission. Two of them were from Rwanda, one was from India, and one was from Kenya. Aside from them, there were 12 patients killed in the diabolical attack, bringing the body count to 16.
The mother superior managed to hide during the attack, an act that saved her life, and allowed her to act as a witness with authorities. An Indian priest that worked at the nursing home was not among the deceased and has been declared missing.
Pope Francis spoke out about the attack through the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, according to CNN.
“His Holiness Pope Francis was shocked and profoundly saddened to learn of the killing of four Missionaries of Charity [nuns] and 12 others at a home for the elderly in Aden. He sends the assurance of his prayers for the dead and his spiritual closeness to their families and to all affected from this act of senseless and diabolical violence,” Cardinal Parolin said in the statement issued after the attack.
The Cardinal went on to say that Pope Francis “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.”
An anonymous Yemeni presidential representative posted a statement on the official sabanew.net website that accused the terrorists behind the diabolical attack of being “treacherous.” He also stated that the four terrorists directly involved in the slaughter had “sold themselves to the devil.”
No terrorism groups have claimed responsibility for the attack as of yet, but Al-Qaeda has done as much as possible to insist that they had nothing to do with it. They claimed they were not responsible for the diabolical attack and that such an attack was not representative of how the terrorist group fights.
According to Yahoo! News, some Yemeni officials believe that the Islamic State is responsible for the diabolical attack, but the group has not claimed responsibility yet.
[ Photo by AP Photo/Wael Qubady ]
