The Independent Online – Wednesday 22nd October, 2003

By Declan Walsh in Nairobi.

Two British teachers have been murdered by unidentified gunmen in Somaliland, a normally peaceful enclave of war-racked Somalia.

Richard Eyeington, a 62-year-old headmaster, and his wife, Enid, 61, were shot dead on Monday night while watching television in their house on the grounds of a boarding school they ran at Sheikh, 50 miles east of the regional capital, Hargeisa.

While there was no obvious motive for the attack, aid workers in the Muslim country said there had recently been signs of increased hostility towards Western workers in the aftermath of the Iraq war.

Mr Eyeington had devoted more than 30 years to teaching in Africa, predominantly in Swaziland, where he taught the daughters of Nelson Mandela, who remained a close friend.

Last night, Lord Attenborough, a close friend of Mr Eyeington through his work as the chairman of the UK Trustees for United World Colleges, described how he was “desperately upset” at the news. “They were an inspirational couple, selfless and courageous,” he said. “They lived and died in the belief that children everywhere were entitled to human rights, particularly education.”

Richard E Grant, the actor, who was also taught by Mr Eyeington, said he was horrified to learn of the death of the couple whom he described as “completely and utterly dedicated to education in Africa”.

“It is a stupefying waste and tragedy that they should have died in such grim circumstances,” he told today’s Times.

Mr Eyeington had been working for the Austrian aid agency SOS Kinderdorf International in Swaziland when he was asked if he could recommend someone for the job of running the rebuilt secondary school at Sheikh.

The couple, who have two children, Louise, a barrister, and Mark, a teacher based in Swaziland, as well as four grandchildren, put themselves forward for the post, and moved to Somaliland last September. They planned to spend at least four years there.

While Mrs Eyeington, who would have celebrated her 62nd birthday this Saturday, also taught at the school, she had increasingly focused on setting up clinics for women and HIV sufferers.

Relatives told how the couple had rejected their pleas not to move to the breakaway Republic of Somaliland, in the north of Somalia.

Describing Mr Eyeington as a “do-gooder” who was passionate about helping people through teaching, his brother John said: “We were very worried when he decided to go to Somalia. We knew it was dangerous, and we thought he’d done enough already. But he was determined, and now he’s paid for it with his life.”

The killings came two weeks after an Italian aid worker was murdered outside a hospital she founded to treat tuberculosis patients in Borama, a town 70 miles west of Sheikh.

Referring to the most recent killings, Mariya Essajee, of SOS Kinderdorf International, said: “This has come as a real shock.”

Dr Hussein Bulhan, director of a local NGO, added: “Everybody here is dumbfounded and outraged. We are not going to rest until these two killings have been explained.

“These were people dedicated to Somaliland and to rebuilding the education system. Coming after the killing of the Italian woman, this clearly seems to be a plot to destabilise the country.”

Dahir Rayale Kahin, the leader of the self-declared nation, attributed the killing of the couple to unnamed enemies who wished to tarnish its reputation for stability. “We will do everything possible to arrest those who have committed this barbarous and inhuman crime,” he said.

FOLLOW-UP:

Richard sent me the following which was included in The Temple news:

Monday 27th October 2003
Message From REG.

“I was absolutely devastated upon hearing the news that Dick and Enid Eyeington had been murdered in Somaliland, East Africa last week.

Dick was headmaster at Waterford-Kamhlaba school that I went to in Swaziland in the early seventies. He was a mentor, geography master and all round first class teacher and Afrophile, as was his wife Enid. I had an unforgettable field trip with them to Lesotho where we found dinosaur footprints in the lava mountains.

My heartfelt condolences to their children Mark and Louise and to all the students whose lives were enriched by knowing these two extraordinary, unique and inspired individuals.”

Richard E. Grant