Dispatch Online — SIX months after the brutal murder of a Somali mother and her three children, villagers in Tambo village in Queenstown are still shocked and scared – but they’re also determined to stay put.

“We’re not going to run away,” one pledged.

Somali mother Sahra Omar Farah, 49, was murdered with her three children in her shop, allegedly by a gang of nine men, in September last year. The brutal attack even caught the attention of the United Nations and then-Safety and Security Minister Nathi Mthethwa.

Farah had only been in the village for 27 days after leaving a refugee camp in Cape Town in search of a better life in Queenstown.

She came to South Africa three years ago for a medical solution for her deaf and mute son, Ahmed Esse Osman .

“She was holding on to her son like she was trying to protect him. There was just so much blood on the floor and I could not help myself crying. It was my first time seeing such a brutal murder in my 51 years,” said Somali shop owner Hashim Mohamud Gure in Tambo .

Gure, who witnessed the gruesome killing, could not hold back his tears as he relived the day of horror.

He saw the lifeless body of Farah with her dead son lying on her legs in a pool of blood.

In the room next to the shop, which Farah used as her bedroom and storeroom, two of her children were also lying in a pool of blood, lifeless.

The room, which is still full of groceries and Farah’s clothes, has since become home to rodents.

Since the attack the community has been united in trying to stand up against crime .

“Every person here has been going to court every time those people (accused) appear. I am not scared living here because we (the community) look after each other. We are not going to ran away because of criminals,” Gure said.

As the Daily Dispatch team entered the shop, there was a strong smell of a detergent which was used to cover up the smell of the congealed blood.

Villager Mable Mtshawulana, who lives just a few metres away, said the murder shocked her and has left her wondering if worse could happen.

She described Farah as the “most humble person” and said she often visited her and joked with her children.

“I heard screams that night, but I did not think it was my friend and her family being killed. It was so painful in the morning when I saw that everyone was killed at the shop. It felt like these were my own children that had been slaughtered,” Mtshawulana said, taking a few minutes trying to hold the tears back before breaking down even further.

After regaining her composure, Mtshawulana said that since the incident, the people of Tambo had tried to take a stand against crime.

Since the arrest of three suspects – Mandla Thomas, 22, Melikhaya Ncaphayi, 26, and Masithini Dyasi, 19 – the community has been protesting outside Queenstown Magistrate’s Court wearing T-shirts bearing the faces of Farah and her children. The trio face murder charges and will stand trial in the Grahamstown High Court on June 30.

Abdi Mohamed Ayante , who has been the driving force behind the protest, said it was going to be difficult for them to attend the trial in Grahamstown.

“I have to keep her (the deceased’s) sisters in the UK informed about the trial. They really want to know what happened to their sister and want justice,” he said. – By THANDUXOLO JIKA

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