(Mogadishu) A suicide bomber attacked a military training camp in Somalia on Saturday, causing casualties according to a military source, an attack claimed by radical Islamists Shebab a week after a double attack that left 116 dead in Mogadishu.
Posted at 3:30 p.m.
The suicide bomber blew himself up at the Xero Nacnac training camp for army recruits, military official Adan Yare told AFP.
“There are casualties, both civilians and among new recruits,” he added, adding that investigations were still ongoing.
According to the public news agency SONNA, the explosion occurred at the entrance to the camp, explaining the presence of civilians among the victims. Witnesses reported that several ambulances arrived at the scene.
“The army has cordoned off the area and it is not possible to approach the camp, but […] I saw several ambulances arrive at the scene and come out with victims, I can’t say how many,” Mogadishu resident Farah Muse told AFP.
The government did not speak after the attack, which was claimed by Shebab.
Last Saturday, a double car bomb attack on a busy street in Mogadishu, claimed by radical Islamists, left 116 dead and more than 300 injured. It is the deadliest attack of the last five years in Somalia.
The Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist movement has been fighting the federal government backed by the international community since 2007.
It was driven out of Mogadishu in 2011, but remains firmly established in large rural areas, particularly in the south of the country, and regularly carries out attacks in the capital and major cities of Somalia.
In recent months, the Shebab have redoubled their activity in Somalia, a poor and unstable country in the Horn of Africa, with in particular a spectacular assault, lasting around thirty hours, at the end of August against a hotel in Mogadishu.
After this attack which left at least 21 dead and 117 injured, President Hassan Cheikh Mohamud promised a “total war” to eliminate the Shebab and called on the population to “stay away” from areas controlled by the Islamists who would be targeted by future offensives.
The radical Shebab Islamists also claimed responsibility for the attack on a hotel in Kismayo, in the south of the country, on October 23, which left 9 dead and 47 injured.