Car bomb kills nine in East African country
A car bomb has exploded outside a busy cafe in Mogadishu, Somalia, killing nine people.
The blast occurred at 10:28pm local time on Sunday as football fans were watching the Euro 2024 final between Spain and England at Top Coffee.
“Nine civilians were killed and 20 others wounded in the explosion,” said Mohamed Yusuf, an official from the national security agency.
Police officer Mohamed Salad reported discovering several bodies under debris in the immediate aftermath of the devastating blast.
He told AFP that five individuals had been found dead outside the building, including motorists whose vehicles were passing by at the time of the explosion.
“Four people died inside the restaurant, some of them removed from under the debris,” Salad added. On Monday, the death toll had risen to nine.
The explosion also caused the destruction of multiple cars and damage to several buildings.
Al Shabaab militants, through an affiliated radio station, claimed responsibility for the attack, stating that the bomb had targeted a location where security and government personnel gather at night.
An African Union peacekeeping force drove the militant group out of the capital in 2011, but it still controls large swaths of land in Somalia’s southern and central regions, carrying out sporadic bombings and gun attacks on civilians and military infrastructure.
In October 2022, Al Shabaab carried out twin car bombings in Mogadishu, killing more than 100 people and injuring 300. The incident occurred just over two months after President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud launched a major counter-insurgency mission, having promised to wage “all-out war” on jihadist groups when he took power in May 2022.
Meanwhile, Somali National Security Adviser Hussein Sheikh-Ali stated that Ethiopian troops stationed in Somalia to fight the terrorist group Al Shabaab will be expelled by December if Addis Ababa does not annul a contentious port access agreement with the breakaway region of Somaliland.
