At least 100 people were killed and 300 wounded after two car bombs exploded near Somalia’s education ministry in the capital city of Mogadishu on Saturday, officials said.
“Today’s cruel and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent people by the morally bankrupt and criminal al-Shabaab group cannot discourage us but will further strengthen our resolve to defeat them once and for all,” Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said.
President Mohamud said the death toll could rise since some of the wounded were in a serious condition.
“Our people who were massacred … included mothers with their children in their arms, fathers who had medical conditions, students who were sent to study, businessmen who were struggling with the lives of their families,” he said after visiting the scene.
Somalia requests urgent medical assistance
The attack has overwhelmed health professionals in Somali since the country has one of the world’s weakest health systems after decades of conflict.
Somalia’s president has asked international partners and Muslims around the world “to send their medical doctors since we can’t send all the victims outside the country for treatment”.
Somali officials claimed that the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabaab terror group in Somalia was responsible. Somalia’s president said the country remained at war with al-Shabab “and we are winning.”
This is the country’s deadliest attack since a truck bombing at the same spot five years ago killed more than 500.