Washington, DC — Updated: July 14, 2005 9:34 AM
At least nine Africans are confirmed missing and eight injured in the attacks on London's metro and bus system last week.
Families grieved while waiting for news from their missing relatives. The mother of Nigerian Anthony Fatayi-Williams said he has been missing since the attacks that morning. The Vanguard reported that she is looking for any news of her son.
"This is Anthony, Anthony Fatayi-Williams, my son, 26 years old," Marie Fatayi-Williams said, holding up a picture of her son for Vanguard reporters based in London. "He is missing and we fear he was in the bus that exploded here on Thursday ...my only son, the head of my family. In African society, we hold on to sons. He has dreams and hopes and I, his mother, must fight to protect them. This is now the fifth day, five days on, five days on, and we are waiting to know what happened to him and I, his mother, I need to know what happened to Anthony."
Besides Fatayi-Williams, the list of missing Africans includes Nigerians Ojara Ikeagwu, Yinka Ajanaku, Toyin Olanrewaju and someone identified by the Nigeria High Commission in London only as Ayan, Ghanaian Gladys Wundowa, Ugandan Betty Nkalubo, Kenyan Amrit Shah, and an unnamed accountant from Mauritius. Many of the relatives of the missing fear their kin are dead. Nkalubo's father has personally reported his daughter is dead although it has not been confirmed by authorities. New Vision, a Ugandan newspaper, reported that a local radio station received a phone call from a pay phone in London with news of her death.
Gladys Wundowa was likely traveling by bus after leaving a night cleaning job, her husband told the Accra Daily Mail. He has not heard from her since the bombing.
At least 52 people in total were killed in the attack and hundreds more were injured. At least eight Africans were injured, including Thelma Stober of Sierra Leone, Ranny Ismael of Uganda, Mary Wangari and Awdh Madhobe of Kenya, and four unnamed South Africans.
Stober, a lawyer in the office of the mayor of London, was seriously injured, the Concord Times reported, and " ...an emergency operation had to be done ... to amputate her left leg from the knee downwards."
BuaNews, a South African government news service, reports that while the government can confirm that four South Africans were injured in the blasts, " ... at this stage it is not possible to release the names of the two victims to the public."
South African David DeSousa was one survivor of the attack. According to the Sunday Times, he was walking back to his office when he heard a loud blast. When he turned, he saw the roof of the Number 30 bus hitting the ground, and realized a bomb had exploded.
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"I was quite dumbfounded," he told the Sunday Times. "I was quite blasé about it immediately after. I phoned a friend and told him 'they've blown a bus up, they've actually blown up the bus'. He told me to get out of there - that another bomb could go off - so I left ... I got to work feeling quite shaky. It only started sinking in about an hour later."
The lists of the missing and dead show London's ethnic diversity and the large number of immigrants - from Africa and all over the world - who were affected by the attacks.
For the most recent list of the missing, see the BBC at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4664209.stm
For the most recent list of the confirmed dead, see the BBC at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4677603.stm
