At least five people were killed and 11 injured, including a governor, in a suicide bombing in southwestern Somalia on Tuesday.
The attack was not immediately claimed, but the focus is on Al-Shebab, an al-Qaeda-affiliated group responsible for suicide bombings in this country in the Horn of Africa.
“A suicide bomber drove a vehicle loaded with explosives into a guest house in Bardera where government officials were staying.”said Hussein Adan, a police commander in the regional city of Gedo, 450 kilometers west of the capital Mogadishu.
The officials included Gedo governor Ahmed Bulle Gared and several military commanders, he added.
“The explosion destroyed most of the building and five security officers were killed”Adan said, adding that 11 other people were injured, including the governor, without giving further details on the severity of the injuries.
“We’ve never heard anything as big as this morning’s explosion, it shook the earth like an earthquake”said Mohamud Saney, a witness.
Al-Shebab rebels have been fighting the internationally backed federal government since 2007. Expelled from the country’s main cities in 2011-2012, they remain firmly entrenched in the major rural areas.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud, who returned to power in May 2022, promised them “all-out war”.
But Al-Shebab continues to carry out bloody attacks in retaliation, demonstrating its ability to attack the heart of Somalian cities and military installations.
On October 29, 2022, two car bombs exploded in Mogadishu, killing 121 people and injuring 333, the deadliest attack in five years in this country, also hit by a historic drought.
Source: DN
