The Hussen family has again fallen victim to an attack. In the night from Saturday to Sunday, an explosive went off at their house on the Jacoba van Badenhof in Ravenstein. Probably it is a lot of heavy illegal fireworks that are often used for attacks, a Cobra. For the Somali, the explosion ensured that war traumas came up again.
At ten to half past four in the morning a huge bang sounded this weekend. The front door, rainpipe and frames of the house were badly damaged by the blow. “My mother, grandma, little sister and brother were sleeping when it went explosively,” says son Abdulhali Hussen, who lives in Nijmegen himself, to DTV News.
“My parents experienced a war themselves. When they heard the bang, everything came up again. They thought:” Do we have to bring the children out, jump out the window, or do people come in? “
On camera images of the residents, who has viewed DTV News, you can see that a man with a balaclava walks past the house several times. He then goes to the front door and there is an explosive on the door handle.
Masked man
Local residents also say that around that time they saw a suspicious man in a car in the street. The Hussen family has no idea who did it and why they are the target. “It is someone who prepared, with a mask on and consciously commits an attack on us,” says Abdulhali.
Thanks to a sturdy front door, further damage on the inside of the home was limited. According to the police, the family was lucky: if it was placed explosively by the window, the damage could have been much greater.
More often threatened and target
The Hussen family has been living in the Netherlands since 1995, after they have fled from Somalia. Since then they have had to deal with violence and threats more often. According to Abdulhali, for example, swastikas on the sidewalk in front of their house were chalked with texts such as ‘Rot up to your own country’, and in 2008 a hammer was thrown through the windshield of the house at night.
Although it has remained relatively calm in recent years, Abdulhali notices that tensions are increasing again in recent months. “If the tensions are running into society, we will also notice that in our environment. Both my parents and myself are sometimes called after and intimidated on the street. We were already worried.”
Great impact
The attack has a great impact on the family. “It gives you a very unsafe feeling in your own house, where you wake up with every sound,” says Hussen. Although he himself has not been living at home for years, he will stay with his family for the coming nights to support them. “My brother was unable to sleep all night, because he is afraid that something will happen again. That is of course painful.”
The forensic investigation of the police started a neighborhood investigation on Sunday morning. Witnesses have reported, but no arrests have been made yet. The Hussen family also shared all camera images with the police and hopes that the perpetrator will be caught soon.
