Dozens Killed in Somalia Bombing

A bombing took place on October 4, 2011 outside the Ministry of Education in Mogadishu, Somalia. The US has launched drone attacks on the country killing over twenty people at the end of September., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

SOMALIA: Dozens killed in Mogadishu suicide bombing

October 4, 2011 | 7:15 am

REPORTING FROM JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA

Dozens of people, including students getting ready for an exam, were killed Tuesday in a suicide bombing in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. It was the worst violence since Al Shabab militants abandoned the city to government forces in August.

The Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabab rebel group, which controls the country's famine-stricken south, claimed responsibility for the bombing, agencies reported. It would be the group's biggest single attack inside Somalia.

A suicide bomber driving a truck laden with explosives detonated his cargo after stopping at a checkpoint outside a Mogadishu compound housing several government ministries, including the Education Ministry. The blast occurred in the Kilometer Four district.

Most of those killed or injured were soldiers guarding the compound or students waiting to take an exam at the ministry, according to rescue workers. Members of the U.N.-backed transitional government were meeting in the building at the time of the attack.

Ambulance coordinator Ali Muse told news agencies that 70 people were killed and at least 42 were injured. "Some are still lying there. Most of the people have burns," Muse said.

Rescue workers were trying to free victims trapped in damaged buildings, according to reports. Reuters reported that dozens of people who had been burned in the attack had to walk to a nearby hospital after the blast.

The transitional federal government (TFG), supported by African Union forces, took control of the capital after Al Shabab fighters left in August. It said no senior government officials were hurt in the bomb attack.

"The attack shows that the danger from terrorists is not yet over and that there are obviously still people who want to derail the advances that the Somali people have made toward peace," the government said in a statement.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, despite numerous attempts to establish one. The weak transitional government recently announced a plan for presidential and parliamentary elections within a year.

Somalia is the worst hit country in East Africa's unfolding hunger crisis. The U.N. has declared famine in six regions of Somalia, mainly in the south, as the country faces its worst drought in decades.