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Award of Excellence
Rick Loomis
the Los Angeles Times
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When Seleka forces pulled out of the western town of Bossembele in January, most of the Muslim population fled with them. But there weren't enough vehicles. Aissatou Yerima, who says she's over 60, and her 7-year-old granddaughter, Habiba Hassan, joined about 100 people sheltering at the central mosque. The next morning, militiamen stormed the building. Those who could, fled into the forest. But Yerima had an injured leg. "I just closed my eyes and pretended to be dead," she said. Habiba was shot in the leg. "She was crying, grandma, grandma, it hurts, it hurts," Yerima said. She doesn't know why the fighters didn't kill them, as they did many people that day. Foreign aid workers found the pair among the bodies and brought them to a hospital in Bangui.
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