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The bodies of four killed teachers were found in a school in
Beledweyne, south-central Somalia.
One of the victims, Daud Hassan Ali, originally from
Birmingham, was the headmaster of the local school and a man greatly appreciated
and loved by all locals. He was about 70-years-old. After winning a scholarship
from a Mennonite organization, he went on to continue his studies in Britain and spent
the next 20 years teaching psychology in Birmingham. He then decided to return
to Somalia in order to teach English to his fellow natives.
He started his project in 2005, the year of his return, and
opened a school called the Hiran Community Education Project, which had seven
classrooms, several toilets and a playground.
According to the New
York Times, a spokesman for the Shabab militant Islamist group presented a
statement in which he claimed that the teachers were killed by accident after
they were caught in cross-fire. Locals on the other hand, said that Mr. Daud was
murdered either for his attempts to preach Christianity or for transforming the
library into a meeting place for the town elders.
BBC News presented an interview with the school’s treasurer,
Hilary Gita-Chiles who said that Mr. Daud was a "truly remarkable man,"
that he was a man “with big dreams.”
"The work that Daud had done in the town was quite amazing,” she added.
The other victims were a 32-year-old UK woman and two Kenyan
teachers.
The horrible incident is being investigated by British
officials and also a staff from the High Commission in Nairobi.
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