Four nuns belonging to the Kolkata-based Missionaries of Charity were killed in a terror strike in Aden, Yemen, on Friday which the organisation has described as the worst act of violence it suffered since it was founded by Mother Teresa more than six decades ago. The gunmen moved from room to room, handcuffing the victims before shooting them in the head. One nun who survived and was rescued by locals said she hid inside a fridge in a store room after she heard a Yemeni guard shouting, “run, run”. All had been shot in the head and were handcuffed.
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“When the guard opened the door [the militants] burst in and killed the guard…” Haidar said his family later handed her over to a group of southern fighters in charge of security in the local Aden district of Sheikh Osman.
Reacting to the Yemen incident, Swaraj stated in here tweet that the nuns stayed back in Yemen despite the government advisories. They fled after the attack, an official said. An official with MSF confirmed that 15 bodies had arrived at the hospital.
“What we have been told is that a Kerala nun attached to the Missionaries of Charity was there and is believed to have escaped, while a priest who was residing in the home is not reachable on his mobile”, said the official.
It was not the first deadly attack on the order in Yemen.
Four Indian nurses have been killed in a terrorist attack today. Shiite rebels control the northern region, which is under attack by a Saudi-led coalition.
Unknown assailants have previously vandalised a Christian cemetery, torched a church and previous year blew up an abandoned Catholic church.
It has been alleged that the attackers were “extremists” and the government blamed the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria(ISIS) group, which has been gaining ground in Aden in recent months.
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On 9 December 2015 the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Aden suffered severe damage when explosives were detonated by militants.
