Fowsia Musse, executive director of Maine Community Integration in Lewiston, has returned home to Maine with her two youngest children after suffering gunshot wounds and undergoing a leg amputation in Ethiopia late October.
Fowsia Musse at the Maine Community Integration office on Lisbon Street in Lewiston in 2021. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
Musse is still receiving medical treatment, but her condition is improving, according to a Wednesday GoFundMe update from her daughter, Shadia Abdulahi.
“She’s doing far better than previously before, and now we are working on looking at further medical accommodations for her,” she wrote. “My brother and sister are doing well, and they’re all so thankful for you guys!!!”
Early last week, Musse was transported from Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, to Maine by an air ambulance partly funded by a GoFundMe fundraiser, which had amassed more than $142,000 as of noon Wednesday.
Musse and her sister, Juweria Subcis, a member of the Somali Regional State Parliament in Ethiopia who had visited Lewiston recently, were shot Oct. 25 inside Jigjiga’s Garaad Wiil-waal airport by a member of the federal police force. Subcis died at the scene.
Musse and a regional cabinet official, Abdirashid Mohammed, were badly hurt in the shooting. Musse’s 14-year-old son was also among the injured, but her 8-year-old daughter was unharmed.
According to the Addis Standard, the shooting was deliberate, but the circumstances remain a mystery.
The trip to Ethiopia was Musse’s first time returning to the region after coming to the U.S. in 1993 at age 12. Musse’s mother, who she last saw 27 years ago, was recently diagnosed with sarcoma, a type of cancer in the bones and soft tissues. Musse had planned to visit her and other family members during her time in Ethiopia.
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