Twin blasts rocked Somalia’s capital, Saturday, reminding the beleaguered East Africa nation that al-Shabaab was more than alive and a palpable threat despite the claims of supremacy the government of Somalia has been promoting over the militant group of late.
According to a police spokesperson, Major Siddik Adan Ali ‘ Dodiche’, the group did not succeed to directly hit the federal Ministry of Education located in the area.
“The militants failed to hit the federal ministry of education were school children were on tour at the time. Instead, the bombs killed and maimed hapless mothers and children going about their daily routines in the area,” he said.
Major Dodisce refrained from stating official numbers of the dead and the injured.
Other sources, however, reveal that at least twenty people were confirmed killed on the spot, and more than double that number rushed to hospitals injured.
But eye-witnesses and reliable sources in the neighborhood quote a much higher figure. Their estimates are based on the number of taxi drivers, vendors, pedestrians and employees and residents of heavily affected buildings that were hit, many of whom were still missing suspected to be under the collapsed edifices. This latter group, some of whom somtribune connected with, believe the killed and the injured run into hundreds and are no where near the grossly under-estimated figures circulated.
Mohamed Essa Konaa, a veteran television reporter who was currently working for M24 TV. Konaa was the last of his family losing his parents and his only brother to targeted killings in Mogadishu and South Africa, respectively.
Two brothers, Sfhafi’i and Abdi Mohamed Hussein, a girl named Hawo-Shiino, Abdi-Kaffi Garaad, Omar Ali Abdulle, Abdirahman Abukar, Mohamed-Shiinel, Sayid Abdi Ali Wardheere, Ali Yare Ali, Hussein Adan Osman, Iqra-Udgoon, and Chief Osman were also identified as among the dead.
The militant group, who had suffered defeat in the hands of civilian vigilantes, supported by government forces in a great number of areas in the central and southern federal states of Somalia, claimed responsibility.
Vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices were used in the two blasts which swiftly followed one another.
The blasts happened in the Zoppe area, KM5, of the capital which has seen many more similarly deadly incidents before including the October 2014 blasts that claimed the lives of more than 100 people.
