YEMEN Eyewitness account from nun who survived massacre
A nun who is the lone survivor of an Islamic State terrorist attack on a church-run retirement home in Yemen earlier this month has provided an eyewitness testimony of the massacre that took the lives of 16 people, including four nuns.
In speaking with a fellow nun named Sister Rio, Sister Sally, the superior of the sisters’ community in Yemen, gave her detailed account of the 4 March massacre at the Missionaries of Charity home in Aden, thought to have been carried out by Islamic State.
As Sister Sally recalled the horrific incident, her recollection was written down on a piece of paper by Sister Adriana. According to her account, IS militants stormed the home around 8:30 a.m. and immediately killed the guard and a driver.
Five Christian Ethiopian men ran to alert the nuns that IS militants were there to kill them. “They were killed one by one,” the account reads. “They tied them to trees, shot them in the head and smashed their heads.”
Four women who worked at the home began shouting “Don’t kill the Sisters! Don’t kill the Sisters” as the nuns ran two-by-two in different directions. Those four women were also killed.
“They caught Sister Judith and Sister Reginette first, tied them up, shot them in the head and smashed their heads,” the testimony explains. “They caught Sister Anselm and Sister Marguerite, tied them, shot them in the head and smashed their heads in the sand.”
The testimony states that it wasn’t clear how many IS jihadis had participated in the attack. Sister Sally was able to escape the militants’ wrath by standing in the refrigerator room behind a door. Fortunately, none of the militants noticed her standing there.
“These ISIS men were everywhere, searching for her, as they knew there were five [nuns],” the account states. “At least three times they came into the refrigerator room. She did not hide, but remained standing behind the door — they never saw her. This is miraculous.”
ACN Malta
