One of the two vehicles, filled with explosives, has managed to enter the grounds of the Ministry of Education. The attack has not been claimed, but the Chabab jihadists regularly conduct attacks in the major cities of the country.
Le Monde with AFP
At least nine people, including children, were killed in a double bomb car attack on Saturday October 29, the Ministry of Education in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, we learned from sources security.
“I was among the first security agents to arrive in this area, I saw the corpses of nine people, most of them civilians, including women and children,” said a witness, adding that dozens of other people have been injured. Another security guard gave a similar assessment.
The two “simultaneous explosions” occurred on a road along the ministry, said the Somali police spokesman. One of the vehicles filled with explosives managed to enter the building grounds, triggering a series of shots, another police officer reported. “A few minutes later, another explosion occurred in the same area,” he added.
According to a witness, there were a lot of people on the road along the ministry at the time of the first explosion. “I saw a lot of smoke around the ministry and a lot of damage,” said another man.
Chabab insurgency
This kind of attack – which has not been immediately claimed – is generally attributed by the Somali authorities to jihadist activists Chabab, who regularly lead attacks in the capital and the major cities of the country.
The Islamist group, linked to Al-Qaida, has been fighting since 2007, the federal government supported by the international community. It was driven out of the main cities, including Mogadishu in 2011, but remains solidly established in large rural areas, especially in the south of the country.
The Chabab claimed the attack last week against a hotel in the port city of Kismaayo which left nine dead and forty-seven injured.
In recent months, the Chabab has redoubled activity in Somalia, poor and unstable country of the Horn of Africa, with in particular a spectacular assault, about thirty hours, at the end of August On a hotel in Mogadishu.
After this attack, which had made at least twenty-one and one hundred and a hundred wounded, Somali President Hassan Cheikh Mohamoud, had promised a “total war” to eliminate the Chabab and called the population to “hold The gap “of the areas controlled by the Islamists who were going to be targeted by next offensives.
The security forces and local clan militias have notably launched military operations in the center of the country, which, according to the authorities, have taken ground from the Islamist fighters.
In addition to the Chabab insurgency, Somalia is also threatened by an imminent famine, caused by the most serious drought observed for more than forty years. Through the country, 7.8 million people, almost half of the population, are affected by drought, of which 213,000 are in great danger of famine, according to the United Nations. Without urgent mobilization, the famine state could be declared before the end of the year.