At least five people were killed and 11 others injured, including a governor, in a suicide bombing in southwest Somalia on Tuesday, a police commander told AFP news agency.
The attack wasn’t immediately claimed, but all eyes are on the Shebab, an al-Qaeda-linked group that regularly carries out suicide bombings in this poor and unstable Horn of Africa country.
“A suicide bomber drove a vehicle laden with explosives into a guest house in Bardera where government officials were staying,” said Hussein Adan, police commander in the city in the Gedo region, 450 kilometers east-west of the capital Mogadishu.
Among those officials are Gedo governor Ahmed Bulle Gared and several military commanders, he added.
“The blast destroyed most of the building and five security guards were killed,” Mr Adan continued, adding that 11 other people were injured, including the governor, without giving further details on the severity of the injuries.
“We have never heard anything as big as the explosion this morning, it shook the earth like an earthquake,” Mohamud Saney, a witness, told AFP.
Shebab rebels have been fighting the German government since 2007 with the support of the international community. They were expelled from the country’s main cities in 2011-2012 and remain firmly established in large rural areas.
President Hassan Cheikh Mohamoud, who returned to power in May 2022, promised them “total war”.
But the Shebab continue to carry out bloody attacks in retaliation, demonstrating their ability to strike the heart of Somali cities and military installations.
On October 29, 2022, two car bombs exploded in Mogadishu, killing 121 and injuring 333, the deadliest attack in five years in that country, which was also hit by a historic drought.