The number of people killed in an attack on Saturday at a busy intersection in the Somali capital Mogadishu has risen to 100, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said on Sunday. “So far, people who died have reached 100 and 300 are wounded, and the number for both the dead and wounded continues to increase,” he said after visiting the bombing location.
Two cars packed with explosives were detonated minutes apart near the busy Zobe junction, followed by gunfire in an attack targeting Somalia’s education ministry. The afternoon explosions shattered the windows of nearby buildings, sending shrapnel flying and plumes of smoke and dust into the air.
The attack took place at the same busy junction where a truck packed with explosives blew up on October 14, 2017, killing 512 people and injuring more than 290. Mohamud described the incident as “history”, saying “it is the same place, and the same innocent people involved.”
“This is not right. God willing, they will not be having the ability to do another Zobe incident,” he said, referring to the Islamist group Al-Shabaab. The jihadists have been seeking to overthrow the fragile foreign-backed government in Mogadishu for about 15 years.
Its fighters were driven out of the capital in 2011 by an African Union force but the group still controls swathes of the countryside and continues to wage deadly strikes on civilian and military targets.
