Gunmen Kill Four Nuns in Yemen Attack

Gunmen stormed a retirement home run by Catholic nuns in the southern Yemeni port city of Aden on Friday, killing 16 people, including four nuns from Missionaries of Charity, an order established by Mother Teresa.

The website Agenzia Fides reports two of the nuns were Rwandan, while one was from Kenya and another Indian.

Yemeni security officials and witnesses said the killing spree began with two gunmen who first surrounded the home for the elderly in Aden while four others entered the building.

The gunmen then moved from room to room, handcuffing the victims before shooting them in the head. A nun who survived and was rescued by locals said that she hid inside a fridge in a storeroom after hearing a Yemeni guard shouting "run, run."
 
In addition to the four nuns, six Ethiopians, one Yemeni cook, and Yemeni guards were among those killed.
 
A witness said the surviving nun was crying and shaking.There are around 80 residents living at the home.
 
Vikas Swarup, the spokesman of India's External Affairs Ministry, said the attackers had asked the guard to open the gate on the pretext of visiting their mothers at the retirement home.
 
"On entering inside, (they) immediately shot dead the gatekeeper and started shooting randomly," he said, adding that the assailants escaped soon after the attack.
 
Missionaries of Charity nuns also came under attack in Yemen in 1998, when gunmen killed three nuns in the Red Sea port city of Hodeida.
 
Aden descended into lawlessness after a Saudi-led coalition recaptured the city from Shiite Houthi rebels last summer.
 
Yemen's civil war has split the country in two. The northern region, where Shiite rebels are in control, has been struck by an extensive air campaign by a Saudi-led coalition. The southern region, which is controlled by the internationally-recognized government backed by Saudi Arabia, is suffering from a power and security vacuum.
 
Islamic State group and al-Qaida affiliates have exploited the lawlessness and created safe havens in the south.
 
Al-Qaida controls several southern cities and Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a wave of deadly attacks in Aden, including a suicide bombing that killed the city's governor and several assassination attempts on top officials.
 
Aden's churches have also come under attack. In the summer, a Catholic church in the district of Crater was torched and sabotaged by Islamic extremists.
 
Yemen's war has killed at least 6,200 civilians and injured tens of thousands of Yemenis, and 2.4 million people have been displaced.