They had recently moved from Swaziland to Somaliland to work for the Austria-based charity SOS-Kinderdorf International, in Sheikh, about 900 kilometres north of the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

Mr Eyeington agreed to become headmaster for four years after the charity asked Mr Eyeington to find a suitable candidate for the post.

In an interview with the Somaliland Times earlier this year, he said he believed the school had a great future.

Despite suggestions of anti-Western feeling, the couple were popular with residents in the town. They had ensured that the school curriculum included Islamic studies, along with lessons in the Somali language and Arabic.

According to the Times, they had been pleased by the warmth of the welcome they had received from local people.

Evelyn Winkler, a spokeswoman for the Austrian charity, said the couple had decided to move to Somaliland, which split from Somalia in 1991, because they were tempted by the special challenges it posed.

"I knew them both personally," she said. "They had dedicated their lives to their work, they were highly professional and very concerned about the community. It is a terrible thing to happen."

Mr Eyeington’s brother, John, described him as "do-gooder" who was passionate about teaching and helping people.

"He always wanted to do the right thing. He was very moralistic and loved to help people," he said. "We were very worried when he decided to go to Somalia. We knew it was dangerous, and we thought he’d done enough already. But he was determined, and now he’s paid for it with his life.

"Why would anyone want to do something so terrible?"

A Somali police official said the couple had been shot through the window of their apartment at the Sheikh secondary school. Their bodies were discovered yesterday morning, along with five spent bullet cases which were found nearby.

Residents said footprints apparently left by the killers showed that they had fled towards mountains on the west side of the town.

Dahir Riyaleh Kahin, the Somaliland president, said the murders, and that of the 60-year-old Italian aid worker, Annalena Tonelli - who was shot two weeks earlier outside the hospital which she founded to treat tuberculosis patients - were clearly intended to create instability in the former British colony.

"We will spare no efforts in bringing the culprits to justice, and we will fight to the end to insure that such killings are not repeated," he said.

"We will also take all the necessary precautions to protect expatriates who are working in the country."

Dr Hussein Bulhan, the executive director of the Academy for Peace and Development, in Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, said that people were "dumbfounded and outraged" by the killings.

"These were people dedicated to Somaliland and to rebuilding the education system," he said. "There is a shock wave here in this town, and we are not going to rest until these two killings have been explained."

The Foreign Office had issued an advisory that there was a "high general threat" of terrorism toward Western, including British, targets in Somalia.

Unlike neighbouring Somalia, a state with a history of terrorism and botched United States interventions, Somaliland is regarded as a relatively stable part of the Horn of Africa.
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Former Pupils Mourn Death of Altruistic Swazi Pair

Couple devoted to education and helping the needy killed in a school residence in Somaliland

By Jonathan Katzenellenbogen, International Affairs Editor

Johannesburg, October 23, 2003 (Business Day) - FORMER students of Waterford-Kamhlaba School in Swaziland yesterday remembered the school's third headmaster who was shot and killed on Monday night with his wife in the Somaliland republic as warm, generous and devoted to education and helping the needy.

Richard Eyeington and his wife, Enid, were killed by gunmen while watching television in their flat in a school compound in Sheikh in the eastern part of the country.

The Eyeingtons, who were employed by Austrian-based charity SOS Children Villages, were sent to Somaliland to reopen a school that was closed in the 1980s as a result of massacres ordered by Somalian dictator Siad Barre.

Until about a fortnight ago, when an Italian aid worker was murdered in the country, Somaliland had a reputation for being relatively safe, unlike Somalia, from which it broke away in 1991.

As a result of the attack on the Eyeingtons, the second attack on foreigners in a fortnight, the United Nations (UN) has withdrawn its staff to the country's capital Hargeisa, and SOS Children Villages has ordered its staff to leave the country.

There is growing suspicion in the UK press that the attacks may be part of a fundamentalist Islamic terrorist campaign in the region. Somaliland police said yesterday they had arrested six suspects, including the watchmen guarding the Eyeington residence at the school.

Catherine Hunter, who was a student at Waterford in the 1970s, says she was struck by how the couple immersed themselves thoroughly in southern Africa, and how driven they were to work for the disadvantaged.

Eyeington, son of a coal miner, was brought up near Durham in England. As a young man he was a devoted Methodist. He attended a teachers training college and later Durham University.

Speaking to the BBC, Eyeington's brother described him as a "do gooder" who was very moralistic and loved to help people.

Oscar-winning film director Lord Richard Attenborough, who has had a long association with Waterford, described the couple in an interview with the Daily Telegraph as "inspirational, selfless and courageous".
Enid's e-mails to friends since their arrival reveal an adventurous spirit combined with practical ingenuity. In one e-mail Enid wrote that the "students are so good to be around", and that the Eyeingtons had made good friends among the staff.

After a stint teaching in Tanzania, the Eyeingtons arrived at Waterford, Swaziland, in 1972, where I met them.

Eyeington took on the roles of housemaster, geography teacher and soccer coach. He was a good all-round sportsman and keen on the outdoors. He regularly refereed national league matches, and once had to be taken off the field under police guard because of hostile spectators.

Enid was school nurse and counselor to students. She also oversaw the school's community service programme, which involved helping nearby villagers repair and build houses, visiting the local hospital, repairing a hospital wing and working with the handicapped and street children. The Eyeingtons regularly took students on field trips to places that included Mt Kilimanjaro, Malawi and Botswana.

While Eyeington had a reputation of making his views known in no uncertain terms, he and his wife developed many lifelong friendships at Waterford among students and staff. The couple would regularly have students over to dinner, and took a personal interest in their lives.
He was devoted to the antiapartheid struggle and for a number of years up until 1994 was barred from entering SA. Another of Eyeington's great devotions was the British Labor Party leaning more towards old labor than new.

Eyeington became headmaster of Waterford in 1984, and pushed aggressively for an expansion of the school's bursary programme. Ben O'Connor, who teaches languages at the school, described him as a very hard worker, and an extremely good organizer who made things happen.

After 11 years as school head, he left to run an SOS Children Villages school in Swaziland.

The couple had made Swaziland their home and, in what is considered a rare honor for outsiders, had been granted Swazi citizenship. They intended returning to Swaziland to retire once they had finished their term in Somaliland.

The Eyeingtons leave a daughter, a son and two grandchildren.

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Muslim Rebels Murder Britons Who Devoted Lives To Africa

By Anthony Mitchell in Addis Ababa, Patrick Barkham and Daniel McGrory
October 22, 2003 (The Times, UK)

MUSLIM extremist gunmen are suspected of murdering an elderly British couple at the school they helped to build in Somalia.

The headmaster, Richard Eyeington, 62, and his wife, Enid, 61, were watching television at their home in the school grounds on Monday night when they were attacked by gunmen who opened fire with an automatic weapon through the window.

The couple had no chance to escape as the gunmen fired five shots at them from close range. They are survived by two grown-up children, Louise, a barrister, and Mark, a teacher who lives in Swaziland.

The son of a coalminer, “Dick” Eyeington grew up in Pelton Fell, Co Durham, before going to grammar school and teacher training college For more than 30 years Mr. Eyeington had devoted his life to teaching in Africa, mostly in Swaziland. There he taught the daughters of Nelson Mandela, who remained his close friend. The actor Richard E. Grant, who was among his former pupils, said that he was horrified at the killings.

The couple were “completely and utterly dedicated to education in Africa and it is a stupefying waste and tragedy that they should have died in such grim circumstances”, he added.

Another friend, Lord Attenborough, described the couple last night as inspirational.

Lord Attenborough, who met Mr. Eyeington through his work as the chairman of the UK Trustees for United World Colleges, said that he was desperately upset.

“They were an inspirational couple, selfless and courageous. They lived and died in the belief that children everywhere were entitled to human rights, particularly education,” he said.

Eighteen months ago the Eyeingtons had been nearing retirement but wanted one last challenge so seized the offer to move to Somaliland and open a boarding school.

Their murder comes a fortnight after the killing of a 60-year-old Italian, Annalena Tonelli, who started a hospital in the breakaway republic of Somaliland.

Frightened aid workers say that they had been warned about the growing threat of Muslim extremists in the area.

Mr. Eyeington and his wife refused to leave, insisting that they had enjoyed “a fabulous welcome” from local families who would bring them food and drop in to visit them at the Sheikh Secondary School, 550 miles north of Mogadishu.

They had been living in the school grounds while they looked for a house in the nearby town and told friends that they wanted to stay for at least four years.

Mr. Eyeington’s brother described him last night as “a do-gooder” who was passionate about teaching and helping people.

John Eyeington, 72, a former coalminer who lives in Cromer, Norfolk, said: “We were very worried when he decided to go to Somalia. We knew it was dangerous, and we thought he’d done enough already. But he was determined, and now he’s paid for it with his life.

“It still came as a big shock when he was killed. Why would anyone want to do something so terrible? He always wanted to do the right thing. He loved to help people and was devoted to teaching.”

Enid’s sister-in-law, Joyce Eyeington, of Edwinstowe, Nottinghamshire, who spoke to the couple last week, said: “They were so happy in Somaliland and had given their whole lives to Africa.”

His colleagues told how Mr. Eyeington was working for the Vienna-based charity, SOS Children’s Village, in Swaziland when he was asked if he could think of an ideal candidate to run the rebuilt secondary school at Sheikh.

The couple pleaded to do the job themselves and moved there in September last year to supervise the ambitious refurbishment of the school, which opened during British colonial rule but like so many institutions had been destroyed by war.

The school, which has a dozen teachers and hopes to accommodate 200 boys and girls, opened in January and Mr. Eyeington was praised by local tribal leaders for taking some of his pupils to remote villages near Sheikh to teach younger children.

Enid, who would have been 62 on Saturday, also taught at the school but had begun setting up clinics for women and HIV sufferers as she had during their time together in Swaziland, where her husband was national director of SOS. A spokesman for the charity said that there had been no threats against any of the staff or the school.

One distraught colleague said: “They had so much love for each other and everyone they met. They were so enthusiastic about the school and for the people of Sheikh who had taken them to their hearts.”

Richard Pichler, secretary-general of SOS Children’s Villages, said: “The whole SOS family worldwide mourns the loss of two invaluable and very committed family members.”

Outraged locals joined the hunt for their killers as the investigation intensified on the orders of Dahir Rayale Kahin, the president, who fears that the killings are aimed at driving Western workers out of Somaliland.

“We will spare no efforts in bringing the culprits to justice and we will fight to the end to ensure such killings are not repeated,” he said.

There is a dispute between police and government officials as to whether this was the work of a lone gunman or a gang of attackers.

Security sources said that police had arrested 12 people near the murder scene. Nothing appeared to have been stolen. The bodies of the couple are being taken to Nairobi today.

Police say they are still trying to discover the motive but senior officers are linking this killing with the shooting of Signora Tonelli, who was murdered outside the hospital she founded to treat tuberculosis patients on October 5.

Nervous aid workers in the area were awaiting advice from their various embassies as to whether to evacuate this western half of the former British colony in the Horn of Africa.

All United Nations workers were told to move to the regional capital, Hargeisa, while the organization decides whether to pull out its staff.

One official working for the European Union’s office for Somalia told The Times: “We think these attacks are linked to a resurgent fundamentalist movement trying to get Westerners out of the country. This is not at all positive. One more killing will close Somalia for good.”

US security officials say that Islamic terrorists have been using Somalia as a base to launch attacks on Western targets in Kenya.

Stephen Collins, Africa regional manager for Health Unlimited, said that there has been a reaction against Western workers in Somaliland after the Iraq war. “It is very worrying,” he said.

Dr Hussein Bulhan, executive director of the Academy for Peace and Development in the capital, Hargeisa, said: “Everybody here is dumbfounded and outraged. These were people dedicated to Somaliland and to rebuilding the education system.”

He said that the murders had caused outrage in Hargeisa, adding: “We are not going to rest until these two killings have been explained.”
Until now this breakaway republic had been regarded as a relatively safe place for Western workers.

A land divided

SOMALILAND

Position: northwestern section of Somalia

Population: 3 million

History: originally a British protectorate, which merged with the Italian territory of Somalia after independence in 1960.

Independence was declared from Somalia on May 18, 1991, as the rest of the country slid into anarchy. The secession slogan was “No more Mogadishu”. This followed a decade of fighting against the Government, which cost 50,000 lives.

Somaliland is still scattered with minefields from the conflict. In 1988 alone, two million landmines were laid in the capital Hargeisa.

The country is not recognized internationally, but has its own parliament, judiciary, army, flag and currency. Multiparty elections were held in April.
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Two British SOS Children's Villages Staff Killed In Somaliland
Source: SOS, 21/10/2003

SOS Children's Villages is today mourning the tragic loss of two of its co-workers in Somaliland. Richard Eyeington, SOS project coordinator and headmaster at the SOS Secondary School in Sheikh, and his wife Enid were found dead at 06.00 this morning at their home in the school compound. They had been shot by unknown gunmen.

Staff at SOS Children's Villages were shocked by the news. "Our sympathies are first and foremost with their two children and their grandchildren. The whole SOS family worldwide mourns the loss of two invaluable and very committed family members," said SOS Children's Villages Secretary-General, Richard Pichler. The motives for the killing are still unknown.

The President of Somaliland has called for an immediate investigation into the deaths. The house has been sealed and the school has been closed.

Richard and Enid were British nationals, who had been working tirelessly in Somaliland for the last year to reopen a once-renowned school, which had ceased to function during the repression inflicted by Siyaad Barre during the 1970s.

The couple arrived in Sheikh in September 2002. The boarding school, which is currently being attended by 100 pupils, opened in January 2003. Richard Eyeington (62) first joined the child welfare organization as a board member of SOS Children's Villages Swaziland in 1987, then becoming national director in 1995. His wife, Enid (61), was also a key person, taking the first steps to develop the HIV/Aids programmes now operating in Swaziland.

Prior to his involvement with SOS Children's Villages, Richard Eyeington was the principal of a leading school in southern Africa, Waterford Kamhlaba, and also played a significant role in the education of children affected by Apartheid in South Africa.

Their decision to work in Somaliland was a culmination of their life experiences in the education of children and young people. With great passion and enthusiasm they decided to make a meaningful contribution to the young people of this war-torn country. This was to be the last working challenge before their retirement.
***
SOS Children's Villages began its work in Somalia in Mogadishu in 1983 with an SOS Children's Village and kindergarten. In subsequent years a school, a youth facility and a mother and child clinic followed.
When the civil war broke out in 1990, SOS Children's Villages started a major medical emergency relief and food programme, which continues today. The mother and child clinic remains the only functioning maternity ward and gynecological care facility in the country. For many years, SOS Children's Villages was the only international relief organization that was active in Somalia.

Somaliland was a former British colony that became independent in 1991 but has not yet been internationally recognized as an independent state. SOS Children's Villages has been taking part in the reconstruction of Somaliland in the educational field by renovating and reopening the secondary school in Sheikh.

At present there is one SOS Children's Village, one SOS Youth Facility, one SOS Kindergarten, two SOS Hermann Gmeiner Schools, one SOS Vocational Training Centre, one SOS Medical Centre and one SOS Emergency Programme in Somalia.

 

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