A survivor of attacks in New Zealand: "I was waiting for my turn to die" – 03/17/2019

When the first shots sounded during Friday prayers, Abdul Kadir Ababora He flung himself to the ground and squatted under a rack full of Korans. He is dead, convinced that the murderer who perpetrated a mbadacre in two mosques in Christchurch would pick him up at any time: "I was waiting for my turn."

For long minutes of untold anxiety, he listened to the Australian extremist Brenton Tarrant methodically execute the faithful gathered in the Al Noor Mosque. It is difficult for him to explain that he is still alive.

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"It's a miracle," he says. "When I opened my eyes, there were only corpses" all over.

In all, 50 people died in the mbadacre Friday in two mosques in Christchurch by Brenton Tarrant, 28, who declares himself a fascist and white supremacist.

Like many of the faithful who were at Al Noor Mosque for Friday prayers, Abdul Kadir Ababora, 48, is an immigrant who arrived in New Zealand in 2010, from Ethiopia, in search of peace and prosperity.

Two weeks ago, this taxi driver and his wife celebrated the birth of their third child.

On Friday, the Imam had just started his sermon when the first shots were heard outside the temple, Ababora said.

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The first person he saw was a Palestinian. A man who had an engineering degree but, like him, he was earning a living driving a taxi in the largest city of the South Island.

"He went to see what happened when he saw the murderer, when he ran, he shot him somewhere in the corner," Ababora remembers pointing to his side. "I saw it fall".

It was then that Brenton Tarrant began his slaughter by killing helpless folk one by one.

Ababora immediately was thrown to the ground and it is hidden under a shelf where the Korans are stored.

"I just pretended that I was dead."

He is always repulsed by the methodical nature of Tarrant, who fired a bullet after the other on paralyzed bodies, committing a mbadacre that recorded and broadcast live on social networks.

"This guy started shooting randomly, left and right, automatically. He emptied his first charger and changed it so that it automatically restarts. After finished the second loader and put a third, shooting again like an automaton in the next room too, "he describes.

Ababora says that he felt the air of the balls pbading by.

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"I was waiting for my turn. Both times, he said to me: "The next is for me, the next is for me" and I lost all hope.He said, so he began to pray silently and think about his family.

The nightmare did not end when the murderer left, after emptying his fourth magazine.

During the endless minutes that followed, no survivor dared to make noise. But the cries of the wounded, who could not bear the pain, broke the silence. "There was blood everywhere."

A friend warned him that he had been injured in the leg. He wanted to help but a part of the end of the wounded was sprayed by a bullet.

He stumbled outside the mosque where he found another faithful – (whose son is friends with his eldest son) on the floor with horrible wounds to the jaw, hand and back.

At that moment, he noticed the presence of two other bodies, Two women in a bloodbath.

"When he finished with everyone in the mosque, he left to flee." These women were late, he shot them. Bang, Bang. "

Tarrant had left one of his chargers, in which there was an inscription of Nazi symbols, according to Ababora.

Like most locals, Ababora would never have imagined that such an explosion of hate was possible in Christchurch, in a country touted as one of the most peaceful on the planet.

"New Zealand is no longer safe", concludes.

AFP Agency.

GML