Somalia’s president says at least 100 people were killed in two car bombings at a busy intersection in the capital, Mogadishu, on Saturday, and the number could rise in the country’s deadliest attack since a truck bomb in the same place five years ago it killed more than 500 people. .
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, at the scene of the explosions in Mogadishu, told reporters that nearly 300 others were injured. “We are asking our international partners and Muslims around the world to send their doctors here as we cannot send all the victims out of the country for treatment,” he said.
The extremist group al-Shabaab, an al-Qaida ally that often targets the capital and controls large parts of the country, claimed responsibility, saying it had targeted the education ministry. He claimed the ministry was an “enemy base” that receives support from non-Muslim countries and is “committed to pulling Somali children out of the Islamic faith.”
Al-Shabab does not usually claim responsibility when large numbers of civilians die, as in the 2017 blast, but it has been angered by a new high-profile government offensive that also aims to shut down its financial network. The group said it was committed to fighting until the country was ruled by Islamic law and called on civilians to stay away from government areas.
Somalia’s president, elected this year, said the country was still at war with al-Shabab “and we are winning”.
The attack in Mogadishu came on a day when the president, prime minister and other senior officials were meeting to discuss expanded efforts to combat violent extremism and especially al-Shabab. The extremists, who are seeking an Islamic state, have responded to the offensive by killing prominent clan leaders in an apparent effort to deter grassroots support.
The attack overwhelmed first responders in Somalia, which has one of the world’s weakest health systems after decades of conflict. In hospitals and elsewhere, frantic relatives looked under plastic sheets and body bags, searching for loved ones.
Halima Duwane was looking for her uncle, Abdullahi Jama. “We don’t know if he’s alive or dead, but the last time we communicated he was around,” she said, crying.
Witnesses to the attack were stunned. “I couldn’t count the bodies on the ground because of the [number of] fatalities,” said witness Abdirazak Hassan. He said the first blast hit the perimeter wall of the education ministry, where street vendors and money changers were located.
An Associated Press reporter at the scene said the second blast occurred outside a busy restaurant during lunchtime. The explosions toppled tuk-tuks and other vehicles in an area with many restaurants and hotels.
The Union of Somali Journalists, citing colleagues and police, said one journalist was killed and two others were injured in the second explosion as he rushed to the scene of the first. The Aamin Ambulance Service said the second blast destroyed one of its response vehicles.
It was not immediately clear how the explosive-laden vehicles got back to the prominent site in Mogadishu, a city full of checkpoints and constantly on alert for attacks.
The United States has described al-Shabaab as one of al-Qaida’s deadliest organizations and has targeted it with numerous airstrikes in recent years. Hundreds of US troops have returned to Somalia after Donald Trump pulled them out.