WGary Ivan Gordon was a master sergeant in the United States Army and a recipient of the Medal of Honor. At the time of his death, he was a non-commissioned officer in the United States Army's premier special operations unit, the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1SFOD-D), or "Delta Force". Together with his comrade, Sergeant First Class Randy Shughart, Gordon was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Battle of Mogadishu in October 1993.
WLufthansa Flight 181 was a Boeing 737-230C jetliner named the Landshut that was hijacked on the afternoon of 13 October 1977 by four members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who called themselves Commando Martyr Halima. The objective of the hijacking was to secure the release of imprisoned Red Army Faction leaders in German prisons. In the early hours of 18 October, just after midnight, the West German counter-terrorism group GSG 9, backed by the Somali Armed Forces, stormed the aircraft in Mogadishu, Somalia, with 90 passengers rescued. The rescue operation was codenamed Feuerzauber. The hijacking is considered to be part of the German Autumn.
WFazul Abdullah Mohammed was a Comorian-Kenyan member of al-Qaeda, and the leader of its presence in East Africa. Mohammed was born in Moroni, Comoros Islands and had Kenyan as well as Comorian citizenship. He spoke French, Swahili, Arabic, English, and Comorian.
WHodan Nalayeh was a Somali-Canadian media executive, marketing consultant, social activist and entrepreneur. She was president of the Cultural Integration Agency and vice president of Sales & Programming Development of Cameraworks Productions International.
WNoramfaizul Mohd Nor was the first journalist from Malaysia to be fatally injured while on a dangerous assignment abroad. The attack occurred on 2 September 2011 in Mogadishu, Somalia, while Noramfaizul was reporting for Bernama TV on a humanitarian mission organised by the Islamic charity Kelab Putera 1Malaysia. An AMISOM investigation later concluded that he was accidentally killed by one of its peacekeepers while travelling in a Malaysian convoy.
WLeonella Sgorbati – born Rosa Maria Sgorbati – was an Italian Roman Catholic religious sister from the Consolata Missionaries who served in the missions in both Kenya and in Somalia. The religious were murdered there not long after controversial comments that Pope Benedict XVI had made concerning Islam and after having worked on the continent for over three decades. Her main attention was on nursing and educating prospective nurses while she also tended to the needs of children in a children's hospital that she frequented.
WAbdirashid Ali Sharmarke, also known as Abdirashid Shermarke, was Prime Minister of Somali Republic from July 12, 1960, to June 14, 1964, and President of Somali Republic from July 6, 1967, until his assassination on October 15, 1969. He was the father of Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke.
WAbbas Abdullahi Sheikh Siraji was a Somali politician who briefly served as the Minister of Public Works and Reconstruction until he was shot dead in Mogadishu in 2017.
WAnnalena Tonelli was an Italian lawyer and social activist. She worked for 33 years in East Africa, where she focused on tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, campaigns for eradication of female genital mutilation, and special schools for hearing-impaired, blind and disabled children. In June 2003, Tonelli was awarded the Nansen Refugee Award, which is given annually by the UNHCR to recognize outstanding service to the cause of refugees. In October 2003, she was killed inside her hospital by two gunmen.