Two car bombs kill 100 in busy Mogadishu market

Two car bombs exploded at Somalia’s education ministry, next to a busy market intersection, killing at least 100 people and wounding 300 on Saturday.

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said on Sunday that the death toll could rise.

Mogadishu’s K5 intersection is normally teeming with people buying and selling everything from food, clothing and water to foreign currency and khat, a mild narcotic leaf, but it was quiet on Sunday, as emergency workers cleaned blood from the streets and buildings.

Saturday’s attack was the deadliest since a truck bomb exploded at the same intersection in October 2017, killing more than 500 people. No one immediately claimed responsibility, but Mohamud blamed the Islamist al Qaedalinked group al Shabaab.

African Union Commission chair Moussa Faki Mahamat condemned the attack and urged the international community to “redouble efforts to ensure robust international support” for Somalia’s struggle to defeat terrorist groups.

The first explosion hit the education ministry at around 2pm. The second hit as ambulances arrived and people gathered to help the victims.

Mohamed Moalim, a restaurant owner near the intersection, said his wife, Fardawsa Mohamed, a mother of six, rushed to the scene after the first explosion to help. “We failed to stop her,” he said. “She was killed by the second blast.”

Mohamud said some of the wounded were in such a serious condition the death toll could rise.

“People massacred ... include mothers with children in their arms, fathers who had medical conditions, students, businessmen struggling with the lives of their families,” he said.