Suicide bombing at market in Somalian capital kills dozens
MOGADISHU, SOMALIA — A large explosion ripped through a busy market here Sunday, killing at least 30 people and exposing the grave securit y challenges that Somalia’s new president faces.
Somali security officials said that the bomb had been packed into a truck that a suicide bomber drove into the Kawo Godey market, near the center of Mogadishu, the capital.
“I was shocked when I saw the bodies of dead men lying on the ground,” said Fa’izo Shimbir, a shopper who was near the market. “The market was full of blood.”
Doctors at a nearby hospi t al s ai d t hat dozens of wounded had streamed in, many with deep shrapnel wounds, and that the death toll was certain to rise.
Somali officials blamed the al-Shabab militant group, which has been terrorizing the country for years.
T h e a t t a c k c a me j u s t hours after Somalia’s pres- ident, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, announced a new offensive against al-Shabab. Mohamed — best known by his nickname, Farmajo, derived from the Italian word for cheese — was selected by Somalia’s Parliament this month in an election process widely seen as staggeringly corrupt.
The election process was so bad, several analysts said, that al-Shabab did not even try to derail it because the blatant corruption made the militants look upstanding by comparison.
Al-Shabab has accused Mohamed of being an apostate and a U.S. “puppet.” Mohamed is a U.S. citizen and spent years in the United States, working as a contracting officer for the New York State Department of Transportation in Buffalo.
Last week, the U.S. ambass a d o r t o S o m a l i a , S t e - phen Schwartz, met with Mohamed and presented him with a baseball cap in Somalia’s national colors, blue and white. It was printed with a slogan echoing President Donald Trump’s campaign: “Make Somalia Great Again.”