Somalia struggles to cope with blast aftermath World reacts to ‘revolting’ Mogadishu bomb attack
SOMALI health workers are struggling to identify and treat the victims of the country’s deadliest attack, as more than 100 people are feared missing.
A truck bomb blast on Saturday in the capital, Mogadishu, killed at least 300 people and injured more than 300.
Dozens are officially missing, but Al Jazeera has learnt that the number could be closer to 100 people.
The death toll is expected to rise, with some believed to be buried in the rubbles of destroyed buildings.
“We expect the death toll will rise today,” said Abdirahman Omar Osman, Somalia’s information minister, adding that rescuers need extra support because the city’s tools cannot move the amount of rubble.
In an interview with, he said: “We are still collecting information from hospitals and relatives of victims. Many people were taken to hospital with very serious injuries. We also have reports of relatives taking injured people away from hospitals.”
Turkey has responded to a government request for international help as some of Somalia’s hospitals cannot treat patients with complicated injuries.
“Some of the wounded need speciali care that cannot be treated here. Several will be flown to Turkey today after they answered our request for help,” Osman said.
A Turkish medical team led by Ahmet Demircan, health minister, arrived in Mogadishu on Monday morning to help evacuate more than 30 people for further treatment.
As doctors and rescue workers struggle, relatives continue to search hospitals for their missing loved ones.
Abdiaziz Omar Ibrahim has not slept for the past 48 hours searching for his older brother, Ahmed.
As well as travelling from hospital to hospital, he uses his bare hands removing rubble from where Ahmed’s milk stall used to be.
“I went to all the hospitals in Mogadishu. I looked through every all the wards but we haven’t found him,” Ibrahim said, his voice cracking over the phone as he struggled to hold back emotions.
“He has seven children. The youngest is four years old. He is the family’s only breadwinner. We don’t WORLD leaders from the United States, UK, Turkey, Canada and France strongly condemned the weekend truck bombing in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, which left at least 276 people dead.
In a statement released on Sunday, the United States condemned the bombing “in the strongest terms”.
The US “will continue to stand with the Somali government, its people, and our international allies to combat terrorism and support their efforts to achieve peace, security, and prosperity,” the statement released by the Department of State said.
Boris Johnson, UK’s foreign secretary, said London “condemns in the strongest terms the cowardly attacks in Mogadishu, which have claimed so many innocent lives”.
French President Emmanuel Macron said: “Solidarity with Somalia. Support to the African Union against Islamist terrorist groups. France stands by your
know if he is dead or alive,” Ibrahim said. “I spoke to him one hour before the explosion. Now there is no trace of him.”
South of the city in the Wadajir district, another family waits for news.
Abdullahi Mohamed (20) was at the family’s small restaurant in Zoobe, a few metres from where the truck exploded. He remains missing.
“What can we do? We went everywhere. We even went to cemetries but found nothing. Only Allah knows where my son is. We can’t find our son and our restaurant is gone,” Mohamed Haji Fiidow said.
The government said it was doing all it could to find missing people. “We have established a national emergency operation centre where we were helping those missing relatives. Many of the victims were burned beyond recognition and others were blown to pieces,” said Osman, the information minister.
“We are also in the process of starting a fund to help those who have lost properties and businesses.”
But for now, families of those missing are focused side,” in a tweet on Sunday.
Ankara, which has recently built hospitals, schools and roads in the country, also condemned “the heinous terrorist attack” in Mogadishu.
“My condolences to the government and the people of Somalia. We stand by Somalia in the fight against terror & will tirelessly continue to help it recover from such atrocious attacks,” Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister, said on Sunday.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Ankara was sending planes “with medical supplies”, adding that the wounded would be flown to Turkey and treated there.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also condemned the mass murder in Mogadishu saying:
“The attacks in Somalia are horrifying & Canada condemns them strongly. We mourn with the
only on finding their relatives.
“I just want to see my son. That is all I want. Nothing else. The rest I want to leave it to Allah to deal with,” said Mohamed, Abdullahi Mohamed’s father.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s state-run news agency says the country’s health minister has arrived in Somalia to co-ordinate the evacuation of some of the wounded in the truck bombing in Mogadishu.
Anadolu Agency said Health Minister Ahmet Demircan is accompanied by 33 Turkish medical personnel. Hospitals in Turkey have been readied to receive about 50 of the wounded.
The agency also reports that Turkey’s Emergency and Disaster Management Agency is sending search and rescue experts and medical teams.
In addition to Turkey, Kenya and Ethiopia have offered to send medical aid in response to what Somali’s government has called a “national disaster”, said Information Minister Abdirahman Osman.
Overwhelmed hospitals in Mogadishu are struggling to assist other badly wounded victims, many burned Canadian Somali community today,” in tweeted on Sunday.
Antonio Guterres, United Nations secretarygeneral, also condemned the blast in a tweet posted Sunday.
“Sickened by attacks in Mogadishu. I send condolences to the victims and urge unity in the face of terrorism and violent extremism,” Guterres said.
The chairman of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, asked the Somali government “to show renewed unity at this critical time and overcome divisions, to rebuild cohesion at all levels of the federal institutions.”
It said the pan-African body, which has deployed a peacekeeping mission in the East African country, would “continue its support to the Somali government and people in their efforts to achieve sustainable peace and security.” — AFP
beyond recognition.
This is the deadliest single attack the Horn of Africa nation has experienced to date. Somalia is blaming the al-Shabaab extremist group, which has not commented.
The attack was one of the worst in the world in recent years.
Funerals have begun and the death toll is expected to rise as Somalia reels from the deadliest single attack it’s experienced to date.
The government says 276 were killed in Saturday’s truck bombing in Mogadishu and about 300 others are injured. Somalia is blaming the al-Shabaab extremist group, which has not commented.
Officials say more than 70 critically injured people are being airlifted to Turkey for treatment as international aid begins to arrive.
Nervous relatives stand on the tarmac at the airport, praying for the recovery of their loved ones.
Overwhelmed hospitals in Mogadishu are struggling to assist other badly wounded victims, many burned beyond recognition. — Al jazeera