Mogadishu blast: 'We have never seen such devastation'
an hour ago

Mogadishu blast: 'We have never seen such devastation'
Abdirahman, right, said everywhere the area was full of dead and injured bodies following the truck explosion [File: Feisal Omar/Reuters]
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Abdulkadir Abdirahman, the city's ambulance service director, recounts the horrors he saw after a truck bomb blast that killed at least 85 people in Mogadishu, Somalia's capital.

He spoke to Al Jazeera's Hamza Mohamed:

"It was a normal day. Very quiet and not much work to do. I was sitting behind my desk at work. Our office is about one kilometre from the scene of the explosion.

All of a sudden, I heard a very big blast. Everything shook. I have never heard anything that loud before. Within a few minutes, the sky was covered with very dark smoke that covered even the sunlight.

I picked up my phone and called the rest of the team. I did not need to tell what just happened because they all heard it. We all rushed in the direction of the billowing smoke.
The blast, which occurred at a busy junction, left at leasat 250 people wounded in the blast, according to officials [Mohamed Abdiwahab/AFP]

Aamin ambulance service was established in 2008 and we have never seen such devastation. Not even in our dreams.

Everywhere you looked, there were dead bodies.

Everywhere you turned, there were wounded people crying for help.

I never imagined I will see such a scene.

Big buildings were completely destroyed. Buildings crumbled. Vehicles were burned and upside down. The tarmac was covered in flesh, blood and pieces of clothes.

Our country has never seen anything even close to this.

In one of the burned minibuses were young students coming from school, their charred remains tangled in what was left of the vehicle they were travelling in.

I will never forget that gruesome sight.

Our 10 ambulances were not enough to take all the injured and dead to hospital. The corpses were destroyed beyond recognition. You could not tell which corpse was a man and which was a woman.

Everyone in the city was trying to call their family members and friends to see if they were okay. This jammed the network and we in the ambulance service could not communicate with each other or the hospitals.

The hospitals were overwhelmed. They had no choice but to treat the injured in the hallways because everywhere else was full.

I saw people I used to see every day in the city among the dead.

Every home in Mogadishu has lost someone or know someone that was killed in the explosion.

The city is in mourning."

 

When will mankind stop inflicting so much utter destruction on themselves? Unbelievable...

 

Various religions have lead to death and destruction over the centuries.

They'll never learn.

 

Not only religion...

 

The day after the USA stops going into any country that they want and starting wars or staging coup's ... at least the CIA manages to stay out of the headlines as it does it's covert work while the military is bombing the shit of a country.

 

Speaking of tragic, as CO2 levels continue to rise in the world the nutrient value of our food supply continues to drop. As the levels rise plants take in more CO2 and produce more sugar and the levels of necessary minerals and protein drops in vegetables/fruit.

 

The U.S. is to blame for this?

Bush and Trump...specifically?

 

Not necessarily "to blame" at times but is a major contributor toward unrest in the world. Throw Russia in there to pick up the slack in countries that the USA can't influence.

 

You need a refill on the kool-aid?

Most of the civilized world is attempting to replicate the very form of government the U.S. has pioneered.

The only thing stopping the rest of the civilized and the others from adopting a form of our government is an outdated religious belief.

 

Give your head a shake, the US system is broken ... newsflash, democracy is NOT a US invention !!!

 

The only countries who have this form of government are the UK and its previous colonies.

 

Actually the Cherokee Nation had a similar form of government in effect far earlier than the US existed. A higher and lower house of representatives lead by an elected leadership.
It was based in northern Georgia before Andrew Jackson began a campaign of forced relocation and had all of the Cherokee marched to reservations in Oklahoma.

 

Shhhhh. Don't you all know the US invented, discovered and came up with everything, ever? Sheesh folks! Read the altered text books and you'll see the truth.

/sarcasm, just in case you couldn't tell. lol

 

The system is not broken, the system is sound.

The elected and appointed officials are what's broken.

Previously, a Monarchy ruled that side of the Ocean.

Now the Monarchy is simply a representation of the Heritage, with no real power.

 

There was a time when I might have almost agreed with you but the simple fact that Trump made it through the nomination process and actually became the President (even though he lost the popular vote) raises a few red flags in my book. The electoral college process is a fucking joke that allows a slug to crawl under a snakes belly and win the WH ...

 

Does the term "constitutional monarchy" have any meaning to you?

 

Yep.

Does a ''Constituional Republic'' have any meaning to you?

 

[<QUOTE="Mr Smith 36, post: 8768977, member: 1000040"]When will mankind stop inflicting so much utter destruction on themselves? Unbelievable...[/QUOTE]
Only alian itrusione may stop this, but I guess it will claim it s share. So I dont know what is better.

 

No. It's an utterly meaningless term. Every republic has a constitution. It's not a system limited to, nor invented by the US.

 

You lot I dont recognise you. I guess you were all Putin infected. And must be castrated, moved to a far lockation or spared.