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Toronto-born sisters Dheeman Abdi (left) and her sister Fardowsa were injured by bullets and explosions in the terror attack on a Nairobi mall this week. Fardowsa, 17, remains in critical condition and may never walk again, her aunt says.


Two teenage sisters from Toronto were wounded by bullets and explosions during the militant siege of a Nairobi mall this week, one of whom is in critical condition at a Kenyan hospital and may never walk again, according to their aunt.
Fardowsa Abdi, 17, and her sister 16-year-old sister Dheeman — both born at St. Michael’s Hospital in downtown Toronto — were grocery shopping at the Westgate Mall supermarket when a group of gunmen stormed the building on Saturday, their aunt Hodan Hassan told the Star.
Hassan said Fardowsa, who remains in hospital, was gravely wounded in her lower body and has since undergone extensive surgery, including an eight-hour operation on Tuesday.
“They’re trying to reconstruct her legs,” she said, adding that doctors have told the family her niece will need extensive plastic surgery to repair lost muscle and tissue.
“She has a long way to go if she’s even going to walk again ... There’s just bone in some parts of her legs.”
Fardowsa’s sister Dheeman, who was also shot and injured in an explosion, has since been released from hospital, said Hassan, who spoke with her shell-shocked relative on Wednesday.
“She’s emotional and crying and just happy that she’s OK,” Hassan said.
The militants involved in the mall attack are believed to be linked to Al-Shabaab, an Islamist group in neighbouring Somalia. The New York Times reported Wednesday that the attackers stashed weapons at the mall before the siege, which lasted four days and ended with the collapse of the mall.
At least 72 people reportedly died in the attack, including Canadian embassy employee Annemarie Deloges, who worked at Canada’s High Commission in Kenya.
Hassan said her nieces were lucky because they were “rescued” and brought to hospital soon after the shots rang out on Saturday.
“That is actually what I think made the difference. Fardowsa lost a lot of blood and was unconscious when they brought her to the hospital ... She’s conscious right now but she is heavily medicated because of pain.”
She’s now calling on the Canadian government to help bring Fardowsa to Toronto for treatment.
Fardowsa and Dheeman grew up in Toronto’s Weston area, and are the eldest of six children, said Hassan, who lives in a suburb of Minneapolis.
She said the family moved to Kenya two years ago, but had visited Toronto and Minnesota in the summer. Fardowsa, who is slated to graduate from high school this year, was looking at her university options, and spoke of one day going to medical school, Hassan said.
“A couple months ago, the 17-year-old who was running around, visiting America, having fun, and telling me of her plans to become a physician — her dream is not lost,” Hassan said.

SecretAgent wrote:Its better if u go2 ur home regions dis girls should have visted der tribes cities,garowe,mudug,bosaso,forget kenya puntland is better

SecretAgent wrote:I was talkin bout greater darodism not sub clans of course ogs have no place in somalia thy need to go puntland