MOGADISHU, Oct 30 (Reuters) – The twin car bombs that exploded at Somalia’s education ministry next to a busy market intersection killed at least 100 people and wounded 300, President Hassan Sheikh said on Sunday Mohamud, warning that the death toll could rise.
Mogadishu’s K5 intersection is normally packed with people buying and selling everything from food, clothes and water to foreign currency and khat, a soft narcotic leaf, but it was quiet on Sunday, when emergency workers still they were cleaning blood from the streets and buildings.
Saturday’s attack was the deadliest since a truck bomb exploded at the same intersection in October 2017, killing more than 500 people.
No one immediately claimed responsibility, but Mohamud blamed the Al Qaeda-linked Islamist group al Shabaab.
The Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, condemned the attack and urged the international community to “redouble its efforts to ensure strong international support for Somalia’s institutions in their struggle to defeat the groups terrorists”.
The first of the explosions hit the Ministry of Education around 2:00 p.m. The second hit as ambulances were arriving and people were gathering to help the victims.
Mohamed Moalim, who owns a small restaurant near the intersection, said his wife, Fardawsa Mohamed, a mother of six, rushed to the scene after the first explosion to try to help.
“We couldn’t stop her,” he said. “They killed her in the second blast.”
President Mohamud said some of the injured were in serious condition and the death toll could rise.
“Our people who were massacred … included mothers with their children in their arms, fathers who had medical conditions, students who were sent to study, businessmen who were struggling with the lives of their families,” he said after visit the scene.
Al Shabaab militants, who seek to overthrow the government and establish their own government based on an extreme interpretation of Islamic law, often carry out attacks in Mogadishu and elsewhere. But the group typically avoids claiming responsibility for attacks that cause large numbers of victims.
Backed by the United States and allied local militias, the president has launched an offensive against al-Shabaab, although results have been limited.
Abdullahi Aden said his friend, Ilyas Mohamed Warsame, died while traveling in his three-wheeled “tuk tuk” taxi to see relatives before returning home to Britain.
“We recognized the license plate of the tuk tuk, which was now rubbish,” Aden said.
“Exhausted and desperate, we found his body at midnight yesterday at the hospital,” he said. “I can’t get the image out of my head.”
Reporting by Abdiqani Hassan; Written by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by William Mallard, Alexandra Zavis and Nick Macfie
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