An award-winning aid worker, nicknamed the Mother Teresa of Somalia, has been shot dead in the breakaway northern enclave of Somaliland, officials said on Monday. Annalena Tonelli, 60, who came from Italy, was visiting a ward for tuberculosis patients in Borama General Hospital late on Sunday when two men walked in and one shot her twice in the head.
| "A nun! I shot a nun! Can I have my jeweled turban now?" |
Tonelli, who ran the 200-bed hospital, won the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) annual humanitarian award in April for her work with displaced Somalis.She had worked in Somalia for 33 years. Her clinic was set up to fight tuberculosis, raise awareness on HIV/AIDS and the harmful effects of female genital mutilation. Tonelli, who also worked in northern Kenya, founded a school for the deaf in Borama where she was also planning to establish a school for the blind.
| Too bad she didn't found a school for the religiously impaired... |
A lawyer by training, Tonelli, who lived a simple life said she had known since the age of five that she wanted to dedicate her life to helping the poor.
| "She ain't a nun? I thought she was a nun. I'd never have shot her if I'd known she was a lawyer... Y'don't think her estate's gonna sue, do ya?" |
The UNHCR said Tonelli had worked under a lot of danger. She had been kidnapped once and also subjected to beatings and death threats. |