Tuesday, September 06, 2011
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An Indonesian volunteer reported missing last week in Somalia was found wounded but alive in South Africa, a person close to her said on Monday. Aisha Wardhana, a doctor, went to Somalia on Aug. 20 to join a team from Rapid Relief Action (ACT), an Indonesian aid organization, to provide humanitarian assistance to refugees.
“We heard news that she was found by a French volunteer named Damien on September 5,” said Bustanul Arifin, her fiance, in a letter published on his blog. He said the information came from a Twitter account belonging to one of Aisha’s acquaintances.
“Then through a telephone conversation on September 5, she said she was suffering from a gunshot wound in the shoulder but had received medical treatment. She also said that she is now in Johannesburg and awaiting a flight to Indonesia.”
Syuhelmadi Syukur, an ACT official involved in the Indonesian Committee for Somali Solidarity, said Aisha was a general practitioner from Yogyakarta who had been an independent volunteer for a year.
She joined ACT’s humanitarian efforts during the eruption of Mount Merapi in Yogyakarta in October.
“She is a spirited volunteer,” Syuhelmadi said.
“Even though she is not a formal ACT member, we appreciate her help and spirit. It is a first for us, to have an independent volunteer who used her own money and links to go overseas for a humanitarian cause.”
He added that Aisha had canceled an earlier departure with a team of four people from the organization because of family matters and had traveled on her own via Qatar a day later.
“She told the leader of the team that went to Somalia, Imam Akbari, through BlackBerry Messenger that she was already in Qatar and would join the team in Somalia,” he said.
“That was the last communication she made, but the team did not meet up with her in Somalia.”
The ACT team was informed by a local guide that an Indonesian named Aisha had been kidnapped but that she was now in Johannesburg.
Bustanul, who is also known as Bokir and lives in Brebes, Central Java, told beritasatu.com, that Aisha told him she had been traveling around Somalia by herself, without an escort.
Foreign Affairs Ministry official Tatang Budie Razak said on Monday that the ministry did not have any information about Aisha’s wherabouts.