Mohamed, here on a Somali beach, follows in her mother's footsteps. (Courtesy of Deqo Mohamed)

She’s a doctor, a newlywed, a fighter of terrorists in Somalia, and a lover of American showerheads. Dr. Deqo Mohamed tells Abigail Pesta about her surreal life.

Relaxing in the beige-toned lobby of the Empire Hotel in Manhattan, a world away from her native Somalia, Dr. Deqo Mohamed is talking calmly about how she helped save thousands of people from getting bombed by terrorists.

She and her sister, both doctors, work in Somalia with their trailblazing mother, also a doctor, who runs a hospital and camp that houses some 90,000 displaced people, mostly women and children, in the embattled country. Earlier this year, Mohamed says, the camp ended up smack in the middle of a fight between the government and the Islamist militant group Al-Shabab, which aligns itself with al Qaeda.

“The hospital was shaking from the shelling,” says the 37-year-old Mohamed, who is in New York to pick up a John Jay Justice Award on behalf of her mother, Dr. Hawa Abdi. “People thought they would die.”

Somalia, one of the world’s poorest countries, has been embroiled in conflict ever since militants toppled the government in 1991. Warring factions have continued to fight since then, despite the formation of an internationally backed transitional government in 2004 and the appointing of a new government and president this year.

Amid the shelling this year, Mohamed says, “I called the government. They said, ‘We can’t help you. It’s a war—they’re shelling us, and we can’t stop. What do we do?’” Her answer: “Get the cars.” In other words, send vehicles to evacuate the residents. A fleet of trucks and buses arrived as shells rained down, whisking people away to tents outside Mogadishu.

Read the Comaplete story at The Daily Beast

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