The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
#Mogadishu hit by most deadly terrorist attack ever & @RedCrescentTR team asist #Somalia Red Crescent Society at the field. pic.twitter.com/by5UH1YXxV
— Dr Kerem Kınık (@drkerem) October 15, 2017
Attack condemned
Saturday’s blast was widely condemned, including by the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Turkey and the African Union.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Ankara was sending planes “with medical supplies”, adding that the wounded would be flown to Turkey and treated there. The country is a leading donor and investor in Somalia.
– ‘Targeting innocent people’ –
Farmajo declared three days of mourning as he visited the attack site and then met with some of the wounded at a nearby hospital.
“Today’s incident was a horrible attack carried out by Al-Shabaab against innocent civilians that was not aimed at specific Somali government targets,” he said in a televised address to the nation.
“This shows how these violent elements are ruthlessly and indiscriminately targeting innocent people.”
Mogadishu’s mayor Tabid Abdi Mohamed also visited those wounded in the blast and said the horror of the attack was “unspeakable”.
“There is no tragedy worse than when someone comes to the dead body of their relative and cannot recognise them.”
Hundreds of people, chanting anti-violence slogans and wearing red or white bandanas around their heads in a show of grief, took to the streets of Mogadishu on Sunday to condemn the deadly attack that has shocked Somalians.
“We have seen what the terrorists can mercilessly do by shedding the blood of innocent civilians,” the mayor told the protesters after they ended their march at a square in southern Mogadishu. “We need to stand united against them”.
Activist Abukar Sheik added: “There is no house in which people are not crying today.”
The explosion occurred at a junction in Hodan, a bustling commercial district which has many shops, hotels and businesses in the city’s northwest.
The devastation caused was widespread. Muhidin Ali, a Mogadishu resident who was close by at the time said it was, “the biggest blast I have ever witnessed, it destroyed the whole area.”
Security officials said hundreds of people had been in the area at the time of the blast, with police saying it was difficult to get a precise number of victims because the bodies had been taken to different medical centres while others had been taken directly by their relatives for burial.
Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani wrote on Twitter that the country’s embassy had been badly damaged in the blast and one of its top officials wounded.
