Somalia market bombed, killing 11 people
Al Shabaab still controls much of southern and central Somalia, but is under increasing pressure from Kenyan forces in the south and Ethiopian forces in the west.
At least 11 people have been killed and 30 more have been injured in a bombing attack in Somalia, BBC News reported today. The attack occurred in the Somali town of Baidoa. It is the second bomb attack to occur in Somalia in less than a week.
Abdifitah Mohamed Gesey, the governor of Baidoa, told the BBC that the bomb was planted in a small basket and hidden in a market. Gesey blamed the attack on the al-Shabab Islamist militia group.
In February, Ethiopian troops seized Baidoa from al-Shabab. No organization has taken responsibility for the attack so far, the BBC said.
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Al-Shabab insurgents, however, did claim responsibility for the bomb that occurred in Somalia last Wednesday, Reuters reported. In that case, the suicide bomb went off in a theatre in Mogadishu, killing at least six people.
On Friday, Reuters reported that the earlier theatre bomb had also ruined many locals' hopes for a more peaceful country.
"Whenever we get a sniff of peace, explosions take place, wiping out any new-found sense of pleasure," a local kiosk owner told Reuters.
In this more recent bombing, most of the victims were women and children, News24 reported.
"This was a disaster," a witness told News24. "I saw several dead bodies of at least nine civilians, most of them women – the explosion occurred as people were shopping."