Rescuers remove a body from the scene of a double car-bomb attack in Mogadishu, Somalia, on Saturday Oct. 29, 2022. (Photo: AP)Two car bomb explosions outside Somalia’s education ministry in its capital Mogadishu on Saturday left at least 100 people dead and 300 injured, the country’s newly-elected president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said in a statement early Sunday.
Authorities claim that the Islamic fundamentalist group Al-Shabaab is responsible for the attack, which targeted the education ministry, an intersection and a school.
“At 2:00 pm, Al-Shabaab terrorists carried out two explosions targeting civilians, including children, women and the elderly,” police spokesman Sadiq Doodishe said.
State news agency SONNA, said the blasts had caused “scores of civilian casualties including independent journalist Mohamed Isse Kona”. The Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) confirmed that Kona, a TV reporter, had been killed.
According to a Reuters journalist present near the blast site, the two explosions occurred within minutes of each other, smashing windows in the vicinity. Describing the damages caused by the explosions, the journalist said, blood from victims of the blasts covered the tarmac just outside the building, and a large plume of smoke was seen rising over the site, moments after the consecutive blasts.
A Somali soldier walks through the scene of a double car-bomb attack in Mogadishu, Somalia, on Saturday. (Photo: AP) The second blast took place as people gathered to help victims of the first explosion. “The second blast burnt our ambulance as we came to transport the casualties from the first blast,” Abdikadir Abdirahman of the Aamin Ambulance Service told news agency Reuters. A first aid worker along with the driver had been injured in the blast, he said.
This was the second time in the last five years that explosions occurred at a point at the K5 intersection, which hosts government offices, kiosks, and restaurants. Earlier in 2017, a truck bomb exploded outside a hotel at the same intersection, killing more than 500 people.
Al Qaeda-allied Al-Shabaab has been fighting in Somalia for more than a decade. It seeks to overthrow the central government and establish its own rule based on a strict interpretation of sharia law. Through a series of bombings in Somalia and other locations around the world, the group targets military installations, hotels, crowded areas such as restaurants, shopping and traffic centres.
In August this year, Al-Shabaab militants triggered a 30-hour stand-off with security forces as they stormed the Hayat Hotel in the capital. At least 20 people were killed and dozens were injured in the siege.
President Mohamud with support from the United States and allied local militias had launched an offensive against the group, however, results have remained limited.
— with inputs from Reuters