According to Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, two vehicle bomb blasts in the nation’s capital, Mogadishu, resulted in at least 100 fatalities and 300 injuries.
Blaming for the assaults on the al-Shabab militia, Mohamud told journalists on Sunday that he anticipated the death toll from the twin explosions to increase.
After examining the explosion’s scene, Mohamud said “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,”
The incident, which took place at the popular Sobe crossroads on Saturday, was claimed to have been directed at the Somali education ministry and a school.
Women, children, and senior victims of the attack, according to police spokeswoman Sadiq Doodishe, were all slain.
Independent reporter Mohamed Isse Kona reportedly perished as well, according to the state news agency.
The ministry was struck by the first bomb, and the second explosion happened as ambulances and onlookers flocked to aid the injured, police officer Nur Farah told.
“I was 100 meters away when the second blast occurred,” witness Abdirazak Hassan explained news agency. “I couldn’t count the bodies on the ground due to the [number of] fatalities.” He claimed that the initial explosion struck the education ministry’s outside perimeter wall, which housed street sellers and money changers.
A journalist who was close to the explosion scene reported that the two explosions occurred minutes apart and broke windows nearby. According to him, the tarmac right outside the building was covered in blood from the explosions’ victims.
An enormous cloud of smoke erupted over the scene shortly after the explosions.
At least 35 injured people have been brought in, according to the Aamin ambulance service on Saturday. Director Abdulkadir Adan stated in a tweet that one ambulance that had responded to the first attack had been damaged by the second explosion. He said that the bomb had injured a driver and a first responder.
The “vicious attack” on Saturday was denounced by the United Nations Mission in Somalia, which also sent its sympathies to the victims’ families. Qatar, which vehemently rejects aggression and “terrorism,” offered its sympathies and wished the injured a swift recovery while Turkey denounced the “heinous” attack.
The blasts took place in the same area as the largest bombing in Somalia in the same month of 2017. At the K5 junction, which is surrounded by government buildings, eateries, and shops, a truck bomb detonated outside a crowded hotel, killing more than 500 people.
Al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabab, which has been engaged in combat in Somalia for more than ten years, wants to overthrow the current administration and install its own rule based on a rigorous application of Islamic law.
Targets of the group’s bombing campaigns have included hotels, shopping centres, and popular intersections in addition to military posts, both in Somalia and internationally.
Al-Shabab terrorists seized the Hayat Hotel in Mogadishu in August, resulting in at least 20 fatalities and numerous injuries. This stalemate with security troops lasted 30 hours before it was finally overpowered.
Mohamud has begun an operation against the organisation with assistance from the US and allied local militias, albeit the impact has been little.
