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nothing wrong and had no idea. And it’s
not a video game; it’s someone’s life and
I think it’s very important for people to
understand that.”
Abdi’s mother, Halima, managed to
get her children out of Mogadishu and
eventually to Minnesota in the US where
they started a new life.
“I was only seven
years old. I was a kid
and it wasn’t easy but
thank God, we survived.
And after God I’m giving
the credit to my mom, who used her
brilliant mind to get us out in a lot of ways
that a man wouldn’t be able to get us out,”
he says.
“She is a very strong person and as a
mother, the love you have for your kids is
unbearable and nothing compares to it.
She was put in a very hard situation and I
can’t imagine being in a similar situation.
“Now that I’m grown I know what it’s
like and it was very hard for her. But she
survived and she managed to get us out
even though she has high blood pressure
because of that.”
1 2
It’s not a video game;
it’s someone’s life
and I think it’s very
important for people to
understand that.
the help of Kenyan security forces, but
once it becomes clear that the targets are
about to embark on a suicide bombing, the
mission escalates from a ‘capture’ to ‘kill’
operation.
Aaron Paul plays drone pilot Steve
Watts and as he is about to unleash a
hellfire missile on to the house where the
terrorists are preparing for the bombing,
a young girl enters the ‘kill zone.’ As both
British and US politicians debate whether
to give the go ahead to fire, the clock is
ticking – and they face a terrible moral
dilemma; whether to go ahead and, in
all likelihood, take the life of an innocent
young girl, or whether to hold off and risk
a suicide bombing that could kill many
more innocents.
“I think it’s a very important story and
a very sensitive one that needs to be told;
it’s about how innocent people get caught
up in a war,” says Abdi. ”And as far as the
story goes, I think I relate to the young
girl’s situation because I was in a similar
one.”
Abdi was just seven years old when,
along with his mother, two brothers and
sister, he was caught in the middle of a
war zone in Mogadishu in Somalia.
“I was stuck in a war with my mom and
my brother and my sister in Mogadishu,
but our situation was much better,” he
says. “Because in that war you could
hear the guns and we could see where it
was going – you could see it, you could
run and you could hide, and you could go
to another house. That’s war and it’s not
easy.
“But with drones the whole game
changes completely, and you don’t know
anything. They can strike from above and
you don’t know when it’s coming. And
Gavin talked to me about how it’s about
the innocent people who get caught up
in this and it’s very touching and very
important to show people emotionally
what happens.
“We hear about it, we see it on TV, but
we don’t know exactly how it feels and
those innocent people who get caught
up in it, you don’t hear about. It’s that
terrible phrase ‘collateral damage’ but
it’s someone’s life – someone who did
•
Eye in the Sky
is out on
July 20