Monday October 31, 2022
By Jason Burke
Twin car bombs kill at least 100 in Mogadishu, the deadliest attack since more than 500 killed in same spot five years ago
Security personnel and ambulances near the blast site after a car bombing targeted the education ministry in Mogadishu, Somalia, on Saturday, leaving at least 100 dead. Photograph: Hassan Ali Elmi/AFP/Getty Images
Somalia’s president has said he will press ahead with a major offensive against Islamic extremists despite twin car bombings that killed at least 100 people and injured three times as many at a busy junction in the centre of the capital, Mogadishu.
The toll in Saturday’s attack – the country’s deadliest attack since a truck bombing at the same spot five years ago killed more than 500 – is expected to rise.
The al-Shabaab extremist group, which has been waging a deadly insurgency against Somalia’s fragile central government for about 15 years, claimed responsibility, saying it targeted the education ministry. It claimed the ministry was an “enemy base” that receives support from non-Muslim countries and “is committed to removing Somali children from the Islamic faith”.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told journalists that the country remained at war with al-Shabaab “and we are winning”.
“Our people who were massacred … included mothers with their children in their arms, fathers who had medical conditions, students who were sent to study, businessmen who were struggling with the lives of their families,” Mohamud said after visiting the scene.
The bombing came days after Somali officials announced gains by government troops in a key strategic stronghold held by the extremists south of Mogadishu and elsewhere across the country.
Al-Shabaab has sought to distance itself from its most bloody attacks and has frequently avoided making claims of responsibility when large numbers of civilians are killed, as in the 2017 blast.
Analysts believe that this time the group, which controls much of Somalia’s rural zones, is seeking to send a message to the Somali government as it pushes forward with its new offensive and makes further efforts to recruit clan-based militia. Officials have also said they want to shut down al-Shabaab’s extensive and highly profitable financial network which raises huge sums for the extremists through illegal taxation, racketeering and smuggling.
In its statement, al-Shabaab said it was committed to fighting until the country was ruled by Islamic law, and it asked civilians to stay away from government areas. The group want to impose their vision of an Islamic state on Somalia.
The attack overwhelmed first responders in Somalia, which has one of the world’s weakest health systems after decades of conflict. At hospitals and elsewhere, frantic relatives looked under plastic sheeting and into body bags, looking for loved ones.
Halima Duwane was searching for her uncle, Abdullahi Jama. “We don’t know whether he is dead or alive but the last time we communicated he was around here,” she said, crying.
Witnesses to the attack were stunned. “I couldn’t count the bodies on the ground due to 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.
Mohamed Moalim, who owns a small restaurant near the intersection, said his wife, Fardawsa Mohamed, a mother of six, rushed to the scene after the first explosion to try to help. “We failed to stop her,” he said. “She was killed by the second blast.”
Abdiasis Abdi, a 22-year-old student, spent hours into the night looking for his sister who last said she lived in Zobe, a busy commercial hub with restaurants, pharmacies and banks hit by the car bombs.
“We found her this morning with only some of her clothes recognisable,” Abdi said. Her body had been completely charred. “I have never seen a horrible scene like that.”
An Associated Press journalist at the scene said the second blast occurred in front of a busy restaurant during lunchtime. The blasts demolished tuk-tuks and other vehicles in an area of many restaurants and hotels.
Mohamed Ganey described seeing victims “scattered” on hospital floors as they looked for his missing sister-in-law. But the joy of finding her did not last long.
“Unfortunately, she died from the injuries just a few minutes after we found her. Everybody is shocked. The only question people have in common today is why kill so many innocent people?”
“We ask our international partners and Muslims around the world to send their medical doctors here since we can’t send all the victims outside the country for treatment,” Mohamud, who was elected earlier this year, said. Medics also appealed for blood.
In August Mohamud pledged a “total war” against al-Shabaab, one of the most tenacious Islamist extremist groups in the world, after the group attacked a hotel in Mogadishu, killing 23 people.
It was not immediately clear how vehicles loaded with explosives again made it to the high-profile location in Mogadishu, a city thick with checkpoints and constantly on alert for attacks.
The US has described al-Shabaab as one of al-Qaida’s deadliest organisations and targeted it with scores of airstrikes in recent years. Hundreds of US military personnel have returned to Somalia after Donald Trump withdrew them, and drones are now once more being used intensively to disrupt extremist operations.
Last week US Africa Command said it had conducted an airstrike against al-Shabaab fighters who were attacking Somali National Army forces near Buulobarde, Somalia, about 135 miles (218km) north-northwest of Mogadishu.
The extremists have already responded to the offensive by killing prominent clan leaders in an apparent effort to undermine grassroots support for the government.
Somalia’s government offensive comes as the country is facing a devastating famine. The UN has warned that more than 7 million people face acute food insecurity amid the driest conditions in 40 years, after three consecutive failed rainy seasons. “Drought is compounding the impacts of other recurrent climate shocks, persistent insecurity and instability [and] immediate action is needed to avert a humanitarian catastrophe,” the World Food Programme has said.
Agencies contributed to this report