Death toll from Somalia terrorist attack that killed politician rises to fifteen

The death toll from Wednesday’s attack in central Somalia in which a parliamentary election candidate was killed has risen to 15, state-run television said.

Amina Mohamed, a vocal critic of the government, was killed by a suicide bomber in the city of Beledweyne, around 300km north of Mogadishu, witnesses and relatives said.

“Police in Beledweyne town launched operations to secure the town after terrorist suicide bombings had killed 15 people last night,” state-run Somali National Television said on its Twitter account.

Al Shabab, Somalia’s extremist rebel group, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Two other extremist attacks occurred in Beledweyne on Wednesday, killing former politician Hassan Dhuhul, an elder and civilians sitting outside a busy restaurant, police said. No more details were immediately available on those attacks.

Somalia is conducting parliamentary elections in an indirect process that involves clan elders picking the 275 members of the lower house, who then choose a new president on a date yet to be fixed.

In a statement late on Wednesday, Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble said Wednesday’s killings were aimed at disrupting the elections.

Data from the election commission shows that the election of 246 lawmakers has so far been completed before an April 15 deadline.

Al Shabab, which has ties with Al Qaeda, frequently stages deadly attacks in Mogadishu and other parts of Somalia. The rebels are fighting to impose strict Sharia in Somalia. They oppose the federal government in Mogadishu and the presence of foreign peacekeepers in the Horn of Africa nation.

Source: The National News