Somalia’s Health Minister Ali Haji Aden on Monday said the death toll from a pair of car bombings in Mogadishu two days ago has reached 120 and is expected to rise further as some people are still missing, reported The Reuters.
“The explosions were huge and left 120 dead and 269 injured. We will help the victims,” Haji Adan told reporters following a visit to the victims.
On Saturday, two cars packed with explosives blew up minutes apart near Mogadishu’s busy Zobe intersection, followed by gunfire in an attack targeting Somalia’s education ministry.
Somali Islamist group al-Shabab, which claimed responsibility for the attack, said it targeted the education ministry, which it described as an enemy base intent on removing young Somali children from the Islamic faith. The group threatened to continue hitting government infrastructure.
Following the attack, a blood donation campaign was organized for the victims in which thousands of people participated, including members of the government and President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud himself.
The blasts are the deadliest attack in the country since a truck bomb exploded in the same intersection in 2017. In October 2017, 587 people lost their lives at the same Zobe intersection hit by a truck bomb attack.
Somalia’s president also issued an urgent plea for international help for wounded victims of devastating car bombings.
“We appeal for the international community, Somali brothers, and other Muslim brothers and or partners to send doctors to Somalia to help the hospitals treat the wounded people,” President Mohamud said in a statement Sunday.
Notably, Somalia has seen an escalation in violence in the wake of President Mohamud declaring a “total war” against al-Shabab in August. The vow came a day after the group staged a deadly hotel siege in Mogadishu that killed 21 people and wounded more than 100 others.
The al-Qaeda affiliate group has often claimed responsibility for attacks on the capital. The militant group aims to expel all foreign forces from Somalia and establish a strict Islamic state. The group controls rural areas of central and southern Somalia and also conducts attacks in Kenya and Ethiopia.
