Car Bomb in Mogadishu Kills 5 Despite Heavy Security Following Al-Shabaab Attacks

Five people were killed and five others injured when a car loaded with explosives detonated on a busy road in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, police said Wednesday, April 17.

“So far we can confirm four dead and five wounded. We offer our condolences to the victims,” Somalia’s deputy police chief Zakia Hussein wrote on Twitter.

Abdulkadir Abdirahman Adan, director of the private Aamin Ambulance service, said his team had collected 13 wounded people and one dead body. It was not clear if these victims had been counted by the police.

“The blast was very huge, and I saw smoke and shrapnel everywhere around the area, the police have cordoned off the road and ambulances were rushing to the scene to collect casualties,” said witness Mohamed Abdikarin.

The explosion occurred along the busy Maka Al-Mukarama road despite a recent increase in police checkpoints in the capital following a hike in bomb attacks by the al-Qaeda linked jihadist group al-Shabaab.

On March 28, a car bomb ripped through a restaurant on the Maka Al-Mukarama road, killing 15 people just days after Shabaab gunmen attacked a complex housing government ministries, killing 11 people including the deputy labor minister.

There have also been several smaller blasts in the capital.

The attacks come two days ahead of the National Security Council meeting slated for April 19-23. Heads of regional governments are expected to arrive in the city from tomorrow to participate in the meeting which comes close to a year after the last one.

Bomb attacks have increased in the Mogadishu since the beginning of the year killing at least 100 people so far.

The Al-Shabaab were chased out of Mogadishu in 2011 by the 22,000-strong African Union mission AMISOM, and have had to abandon most of their strongholds, but they still control vast rural areas and remain the key threat to peace in Somalia.

Al-Shabaab is fighting to overthrow the internationally backed government in Somalia but has also carried out attacks in neighboring Kenya, which has deployed troops as part of the African Union Mission in Somalia.

With reporting from AFP