100 people killed, 300 injured in Al Shabaab car bomb attacks in Somalia
Two car bombs went off at Somalia’s education ministry, close to a busy market intersection on Saturday and killed at least 100 people. No fewer than 300 were also injured in the explosion
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said on Sunday that the death toll could rise.
“We ask our international partners and Muslims around the world to send their medical doctors here since we can’t send all the victims outside the country for treatment,” Mr Mohamud said on Sunday after visiting the scene.
The bombing came days after Somali officials announced gains by government troops in a key strategic stronghold held by the Al Shabaab south of Mogadishu.
Al Qaeda-linked Islamist group, Al Shabaab, claimed responsibility for the deadliest bomb attack when a truck bomb exploded at the same intersection in October 2017, killing more than 500 people.
In August, Mr Mohamud pledged a “total war” against Al-Shabaab after it attacked a hotel in Mogadishu, killing 23 people.
Reuters reports that the terrorist group accused the ministry of being complicit in the “war on minds”, as Somali’s education systems teach children using a Christian-based syllabus.
“These senseless attacks against innocent civilians including women and children only serve to remind us of the group’s barbarity towards its own people and reveal the true hypocrisy of its intent,” the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said in a statement.
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