FOUR PEOPLE KILLED IN MOGADISHU EXPLOSION

Mogadishu, SOMALIA

At least four people were killed and 10 others were injured after a car bomb exploded on Wednesday morning at a busy junction near buildings which house government offices in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, police said.

The explosion occurred as vehicles lined up for a search at a security checkpoint. Ambulances rushed to the scene of the explosion to take the injured to the hospital.

“Explosives were packed in a vehicle which the security forces think was trying to pass through the checkpoint but because he could not do that, the suicide bomber detonated it,” a police officer named Adan Abdullahi, who spoke to AFP, said.

Eyewitnesses who spoke to AFP reported seeing several bodies, a number of vehicles on fire and smoke and chaos along the road.

Horn Connect, a local media outlet, reported that 15 people were injured in the explosion which happened during a busy time of the morning.

“The explosion occurred during the rush hours. The government officials frequently use the road and it is near to the Ministry of Internal Security, the parliament building and the presidential palace,” Horn Connect’s Mohammed Matan reported.

The Al-Qaeda linked group Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s attack.

This is the second attack claimed by the group to rock Mogadishu in recent days. On December 28, a bomb blast killed at least 90 people and injured more than 100 others at the Ex-Control checkpoint.

That bombing was the deadliest the country had experienced in more than two years after one in Mogadishu which killed close to 600 people in 2017.

Al-Shabaab has carried out bombings to try to sabotage the central government which has the support of the United Nations and African Union.