The toll has climbed to 39 dead in an
unusually deadly suicide bombing at the
weekend in the Somali capital
Mogadishu, rescue workers said
Monday, the first since a new president
was chosen this month.
The suicide car bomber struck a busy
market in the Madina neighbourhood
on Sunday, the explosion ripping
through shoppers, stalls and vehicles.
No group has so far claimed
responsibility for the attack, but suicide
bombings are commonly carried out by
Somalia’s Shabaab jihadists who have
threatened a “vicious war” against the
new government.
“Thirty-nine people died and 27 others
were wounded,” Abdukadir
Abdurahman Adem head of
Mogadishu’s Amin Ambulance service,
said on Monday.
Authorities on Sunday said at least 20
people were killed by the blast.
The attack drew condemnation from
international backers of Somalia’s
newly-elected President Mohamed
Abdullahi Mohamed, known as Farmajo,
who has offered a $100,000 (94,000
euro) reward for information on who
carried out the attack.
Farmajo, a dual American and Somali
citizen, is due to be sworn in on
Wednesday.
The latest attack underlines the
challenge facing the new president, who
has inherited an administration with
limited control over Somali territory
due to the presence of Shabaab, and is
heavily propped up by the international
community.
The Shabaab, an al-Qaeda-aligned
militant group, was forced out of the
capital by African Union troops in 2011
but still controls parts of the countryside
and carries out attacks against
government, military and civilian
targets seemingly at will in Mogadishu
and regional towns.
Somalia has not had an effective central
government since the collapse of Siad
Barre’s military regime in 1991, which
led to decades of civil war and violent
anarchy.
