Two explosions have rocked the Somali capital, in what appears to be an ongoing attack at the country’s education ministry.
According to police, “the number of people killed or injured in the explosions”, but the official death toll has not been released.
The attack in Mogadishu happened in a crowded area containing several government offices, and on a day when the president, prime minister and other senior officials of the nation were meeting to discuss extremism. violence.
Leaders are expected to pay particular attention to a known extremist group linked to al Qaeda Is called al Shabaab.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the explosions at the Zobe junction, which are understood to have been caused by car bombs.
State news agency SONNA said the explosions had caused “a lot of civilian casualties, including independent journalist Mohamed Isse Kona”.
Reuters reported that witnesses saw windows blown out of nearby buildings and burned ambulances destroyed in the second blast.
“Two car bombs targeted the building of the Ministry of Education along K5 road,” local resident Ahmed Nur told the news agency.
“The second explosion consumed our ambulance when we arrived to transport victims from the first explosion,” added Abdikadir Abdirahman, founder of Aamin Ambulance Service.
Photo: Abdihalim Bashir / via REUTERS
Who is Al Shabaab?
Al Shabaab often targets the capital with attacks on famous sites that begin with explosions and continue with gunmen entering and fighting security teams.
The group attacked the education ministry in 2015, and the latest attack occurred at the site of a massive explosion in al Shabaab in 2017, killing more than 500 people.
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The group emerged as an extremist wing of the Somali Islamic Courts Union (ICU), the defunct organization that declared allegiance to al Qaeda in 2012.
Al Shabaab is considered a terrorist organization by the UK.
From Somalia the government is engaged in a new attack against the extremist group, described by the United States as one of al Qaeda’s most dangerous affiliates.
