The 14th of October was a special day. I will always remember it like it was yesterday.

I was excited for I was invited to a lunch with the First Lady. I felt honoured and looked really forward. Today is the day. Was my henna looking gorgeous, my dress really smart? Only such little thoughts were bothering me when the other women and I would finally depart. Today is the day. Such beautiful day on the Indian Ocean! I didn’t know that evil forces had been set into motion. Today is the day. The afternoon came and everybody was relaxed, myself feeling a little detached. Talking to my daughter on the phone, giving each other the latest news – it always made me happy to the bone. Today is the day.

And so it happened. It was the loudest bomb I’ve ever heard. Even my daughter could hear it through the phone. When a bomb comes one is never prepared. Today is the day. The news coming in slowly like drops leaving us all in utter shocks. What kind of day! How many mothers, fathers and children dead? Twenty, thirty? Oh no, even fifty? Counting the dead is curse. Please tell me – is there anything worst? The numbers rise and rise and rise. Over four hundred Somali lives gone. Over four hundred Somali lives deleted – and yet! We will never be defeated. Gone is the young female doctor, gone is the pregnant woman and her innocent baby, gone are the four brothers. Gone are all those hopeful lives. Many of them had not yet arrived. What a painful day. Their names must live and never be forgotten. And we should repeat them ever so often. The killers are from within that’s forever so clear. Murdering their own people and blood without fear. But for as long as the country’s borders are open, anything can just come in floating.

My people are busy dividing the nation – is it not obvious that it will lead to more subjugation? Divide and rule is the enemy’s dirty game but if we play along who is to blame? The day will come. Count correctly and make no mistake! It wasn’t the over four hundred Somali lives that left us. Count all the unborn lives as well. Gone and lost forever. We are crying and mourning – for once together. The unborn children will cry every night, crying for their people to stand up and fight. That day shall come. 14th of October 2017 – Somalia will remember you. Over four hundred stolen Somali lives and more, it shocked the nation to the core. Cutting deep in our flesh and bones making every Somali moan.

It is time. We’ve put up with evil far too long. Who is out there who cannot sing a song? A song of sadness and endless loss all because of the same source. The day is near. A bomb so loud that it shook the nation should finally create some concentration. To concentrate on us and no-one else otherwise how can we progress? Our loved ones stay with us forever and ever. In our prayers they will be the centre. Defeated we are not and can never be. As a nation we must stand, united and well guided.

By Halima H. Hosh