Terrorists in Nairobi Slaughtered Pregnant Harvard Grad

Two of the people massacred in the Kenyan mall in Nairobi were a British couple only weeks away from the birth of their first child. Ross Langdon, an architect who had worked on a number of Africa-based projects, one of which was designing for free an HIV-Aids hospital in Kenya, and his heavily pregnant wife Elif Yavuz, who was a malaria specialist who worked at the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation in Kenya, were slaughtered by Islamic terrorists alleged to be from the Somali group Al Shabaab. Langdon had studied architecture at the University of Tasmania and the University of Sydney; Yavus had studied at Harvard University.

Langdon spoke last year at a conference in Poland called TEDxKrakow about “Ideas worth spreading.” On the TEDxKrakow website, a statement was released which said:

It is with great sadness that we learnt of the tragic murder of Ross Langdon and his wife Elif Yavuz in the terrorist attacks in Nairobi on Saturday. They were expecting their first baby in a couple of weeks. Ross spoke at TEDxKrakow in 2012 about his work in Africa. He devoted his life to creating sustainable architecture that is integrated into communities, and he left us with hope for humanity.

Langon’s mother Tricia, shattered, wrote on Facebook, “We have lost my beautiful son Ross Langdon, his lovely partner Elif Yavus and their much loved baby just two weeks away from birth. The loss is immeasurable, absurd and excruciating.”