Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo declared three days of national mourning and donated blood Sunday.
Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed declared three days of national mourning and donated blood Sunday as the death toll from a truck bomb blast in Mogadishu rose to 189.
“Terror won’t win,” Farmaajo said after visiting some of the scores of wounded at hospitals in the capital. “I call on our citizens to come out, extend help, donate blood and comfort the bereaved. Let’s get through this together.”
The blast destroyed multiple buildings and set several nearby cars and trucks ablaze. The Associated Press, citing police and hospital sources, put the death toll at 189. Abshir Mohamed Ahmed, the deputy speaker of Somalia’s upper house of parliament, told the Voice of America the death toll may have surpassed 230.
Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire expressed his condolences to the families of the victims. He blamed the attack on the militant al-Shabab jihadist group, which has not commented on the attack. The group has carried out a series of attacks in recent years aimed at toppling Farmaajo’s government.
The United States and the United Nations condemned the attack.
“In our 10 year experience as the first responder in #Mogadishu, we haven’t seen anything like this,” the Aamin Ambulance service tweeted Sunday.
Relatives of the dead and wounded rushed to hospitals overwhelmed with victims.
“There’s nothing I can say,” Zainab Sharif, a mother of four who lost her husband, told the Associated Press outside the hospital where he was pronounced dead. “We have lost everything.”
Al-Shabab, which translates to The Youth, emerged from a now-defunct jihadist group that ruled Mogadishu a decade ago until Somali forces liberated the city. Al-Shabab has links to al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups and has drawn fighters from neighboring countries.
Al-Shabab has also staged attacks over the border in Kenya, the most deadly being a massacre at Garissa University in 2015. Gunmen stormed the school in a bloodbath that killed 148 and wounded dozens more.
The militant group promotes a strict Sharia law that includes amputating the hands of thieves.
