A suicide bombing in southeastern Somalia on Tuesday killed at least five persons and injured 11, including a governor.
The incident was not immediately claimed, but the Shebab, an al-Qaeda-affiliated group that often carries out suicide attacks in the poor and fragile Horn of Africa country, is suspected.
“A suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden vehicle into a guesthouse in Bardera where government officials were staying,” said Hussein Adan, a police commander in the town in the Gedo region 450 kilometres west of the capital Mogadishu.
The officials included Gedo governor Ahmed Bulle Gared and several military commanders, he added.
“The explosion destroyed most of the building and five security personnel were killed,” Mr Adan said, adding that 11 other people were injured, including the governor, without giving further details on the severity of the injuries.
“We have never heard anything as big as the explosion this morning, it shook the earth like an earthquake,” Mohamud Saney, a witness, told AFP.
Since 2007, the Shebab insurgents have been attacking the internationally supported federal government. They were driven from the country’s major cities in 2011-2012, but they are still well-entrenched in huge rural areas.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud, who returned to power in May 2022, has promised them “total war”.
But, in return, the Shebab continue to carry out horrific strikes, displaying their ability to strike at the heart of Somali cities and military sites.
Two car bombs erupted in Mogadishu on October 29, 2022, killing 121 people and injuring 333, the bloodiest incident in five years in this country, which is also suffering from a record drought.
