Swiss "angel of mercy" killed

A Swiss aid worker, murdered in the town of Marka on Friday, was on Monday described as an "angel of mercy" by local residents. Aw-Maye Shuja'a Sufi, a local elder, told IRIN that 70 year-old Verena Karer was "one of us". "The whole town is saddened by her death," he said. Karer, who arrived in Marka - 100 km south of Mogadishu - as a voluntary nurse in 1993, at the height of the famine in Somalia, was killed by two gunmen on Friday night, Muhammad Dahir, an employee of a local nongovernmental organisation (NGO), told IRIN. She was murdered in the compound of a secondary school she had built and opened late last year. According to Muhammad, she never allowed her guards to carry guns. "She was well known in Marka for walking around without any bodyguards," he said. Local sources told IRIN that the prime suspect behind the killing was a former teacher who had been dismissed by Karer "for being a troublemaker". The former teacher was in custody, along with two other men, the sources said. Police investigators dispatched from Mogadishu by the Transitional National Government confirmed to IRIN they had arrested three male suspects. "I cannot give you any more details on the investigation, except to say it is still ongoing, and we should be able to issue a statement soon," a police source said. Karer established her first clinic and school in 1994, shortly after her arrival. "She set up the primary school and the clinic at Hawl-Wadag, the poorest neighbourhood in Marka," Sterlin Abdi Arush of COSV, an Italian NGO in Marka, told IRIN. Karer reportedly encouraged poor parents to send their children to the school by providing the youngsters with food. "She was running a feeding centre-cum-school," Sterlin said. "You can imagine how much that meant to families who could not even afford to give their children breakfast." According to Sterlin, Karer had been involved in all aspects of the town's life. "She even recruited a crew to clean the marketplace every day." Karer was not funded by governments nor big international organisations, but by a group of Swiss women who individually contributed through a women's organisation known as 'New Way', Sterlin added. "The sad irony of it all is that it is the people of Marka who are the biggest losers with her death," she said. "She will be missed by her children and by all who knew this wonderful woman and great humanitarian." Karer's body was taken to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Saturday, where she would be cremated. On Sunday, a huge demonstration took place in Marka "not only to protest against the killing, but to remember Verena", Muhammad Dahir added.