SOMALIA: Roadside explosion kills one and injures Somalia's interior minister as his convoy drives through Mogadishu

Record ID: 353527

  • Title: SOMALIA: Roadside explosion kills one and injures Somalia's interior minister as his convoy drives through Mogadishu
  • Date: 27th March 2009
  • Summary: MOGADISHU, SOMALIA (MARCH 26, 2009) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF LOCAL RESIDENTS STANDING AT SITE WHERE ROADSIDE BOMB EXPLODED DEBRIS ON GROUND EXTERIOR OF BUILDING PRO GOVERNMENT ISLAMIC COURTS UNION MILITIA HOLDING GUNS STANDING OUTSIDE BUILDING GROUP OF JOURNALISTS AT NEWS CONFERENCE INSIDE BUILDING (SOUNDBITE) (Somali) ABDUKADIR ALI OMAR, SOMALIA INTERIOR MINISTER SAYING: "As
  • Embargoed: 11th April 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Somalia
  • Country: Somalia
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAD9JYAV935X2LRWLXRVT4H232I
  • Story Text: A roadside bomb wounded Somalia's new interior minister and killed a security guard on Thursday (March 26) in the latest violence in Mogadishu, witnesses said.
    The blast struck a car transporting Abdukadir Ali Omar near the Somali capital's Bakara market area.
    There was no immediate claim of responsibility though Islamist militants are fighting the Somali government and frequently carry out such attacks.
    Omar, who is part of a new government seeking to end 18 years of conflict in the Horn of Africa nation, was treated for shoulder injuries at a Mogadishu hospital and was later discharged.
    "I am in good health and in very good spirit," he told Reuters.
    "But one important thing we all need to understand is that we have had enough bloodshed in our country and we do not need to continue this way," he added.
    The hardline Islamist group al Shabaab, together with allied militia, control large swathes of southern Somalia, including the strategic towns of Baidoa and Kismayu.
    Al Shabaab, which fought pro-government Ethiopian troops until they left in January, has vowed to go on attacking the 3,500-strong AU peacekeeping force known as AMISOM.
    Somalia and the AU have repeatedly called for the United Nations to send a full-fledged peacekeeping force to Somalia to take over from the AU force.
    More than 3 million people need humanitarian aid in Somalia as a result of violence and food shortages, according to U.N. estimates. Somalia has been wracked by factional fighting since a dictatorship collapsed in 1991.
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