A car bomb exploded near a Mogadishu cafe full of people watching the Euro 2024 football final on Sunday, killing nine people and wounding 20, authorities said.
“Five people were killed near the building and on the main road, including drivers of vehicles passing through the area, and four more were killed inside the restaurant,” said Mohamed Yusuf, a Somali police officer.
The government attributed the attack to the Shebab group, which has carried out similar attacks against security, political and civilian targets, but radical Islamic insurgents linked to al-Qaeda have not claimed responsibility for the attack during the test, in which Spain beat England 2-1.
Despite it being night, several witnesses reported seeing a huge fireball and a cloud of smoke in the chaos that erupted in an area relatively close to the presidential palace.
A day earlier on Saturday, five Shebab-linked prisoners were killed in a shootout while attempting to escape from the capital’s main prison. The escape left three guards dead and 18 wounded.
Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has promised “all-out war” against jihadists who were driven out of the capital in 2011 by African Union (AU) forces sent into rural areas, from which they have been withdrawing since the start of this year, intensifying their violence in urban centres.
Four thousand of the 13,500 AU troops on mission in Somalia were due to leave the country by the end of June, but following persistent requests from local authorities, the withdrawal will be slower and more gradual.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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