Amina Mohamed Abdi |
A prominent Somali female lawmaker is among at least 15 people killed in a suicide bombing that hit a polling station in rural central Somalia, police said Thursday.
The attack took place late
Wednesday in the town of Beledweyne, the capital of Somalia’s Hiran region.
Among its victims was
opposition lawmaker Amina Mohamed Abdi, an outspoken government critic who was
campaigning to retain her seat in the National Assembly.
Al-Shabab, Somalia’s Islamic
extremist rebel group, claimed responsibility for the attack. The 15 people
killed were “mostly civilians” and the attack wounded “an unspecific number” of
people, police officer Ahmed Hassan told AP by phone.
“I was at a walking distance
to the polling station when a suicide bomber rushed towards the member of
parliament Amina and embraced her and blew himself up,” eyewitness Dhaqane
Hassan said. “Shots were fired in the air by the soldiers who seemed shocked,
but unfortunately she instantly died at the scene.”
Abdi, the legislator killed at
a polling station, was in Beledweyne campaigning for re-election in a vote
expected to take place this week.
“Somalia has lost a promising
giant leader, an activist, a fearless advocate who finally paid the ultimate
price for seeking justice for Ikram Tahlil,” said lawmaker Abdirizak Mohamed,
speaking of a female intelligence officer whose killing Abdi had been trying to
investigate.
President Mohamed Abdullahi
Mohamed and Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble condemned the attack.
Two other extremist attacks
occurred in Beledweyne Wednesday, killing former lawmaker Hassan Dhuhul, a
traditional elder and civilians sitting outside a busy restaurant, police said.
No more details were immediately available on those attacks.
The attacks in Beledweyne came
hours after an attack in the capital, Mogadishu, in which two al-Shabab gunmen
tried to force their way into the international airport in the capital. Somali
forces and African Union peacekeepers said they ended that assault by killing
both the attackers. At least six people were killed in that attack, including
at least one African Union peacekeeper, according to police. Authorities did
not reveal the identities of the victims.
Al-Shabab, which has ties with
al-Qaida, frequently stages deadly attacks in Mogadishu and other parts of
Somalia. The rebels are fighting to impose strict Shariah law in Somalia. They
oppose the federal government in Mogadishu and the presence of foreign
peacekeepers in the Horn of Africa nation.
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