AU slams Somali bomb blast
2009-12-04 10:18
Addis Ababa - The African Union has strongly condemned a suicide attack that killed 19 people, including three Somali government ministers, and injured more than 60 in Mogadishu.
Jean Ping, chairman of the AU Commission, condemned "in the strongest terms possible" Thursday's attack on a graduation ceremony for medical students at the Hotel Shamo.
The blast by "armed opposition groups" is the most serious attack on the Somalia Transitional Federal Government (TFG) since the launch of an al-Qaeda inspired Islamist insurgency in the Horn of Africa nation.
The "inhumane and cowardly act" aimed at stalling the peace process would not deter the AU's support for peace and reconciliation, the statement added.
"The African Union will spare no efforts to ensure that perpetrators of this act and such heinous crimes against humanity being carried out in Somalia will in due course be brought to justice," the AU statement added.
Terrorist attack
The African Union force in Somalia Amisom said the attack during the ceremony for students from Banadir University resulted in the deaths of at least 19 people and injuries to several others.
Most of the victims were students.
Higher Education Minister Ibrahim Hassan Addow and Health Minister Qamar Aden were killed on the spot and Education Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Waayel died shortly after the blast, a senior official from the UN-backed government said.
Sports Minister Suleyman Olad Roble was among the injured.
Two journalists, one from Shabele Radio and another from Al Arabiya television, and a doctor were also killed, a source at the hotel said.
A hotel security official said the suicide bomber was probably among the students. The head of an NGO operating in Mogadishu said the bomber was dressed as a woman.
The foreign ministry of Ethiopia, which intervened militarily in late 2006 in support of the TFG, said in a separate statement that the Ethiopian government "strongly condemns the terrorist attack."
"Such attacks should only redouble the determination of the international community and the United Nations Security Council to use all possible efforts to bring about peace and stability in Somalia," it said.
Strategic sites
A joint statement from the European Union, the regional InterGovernmental Authority on Development, the League of Arab States, the UN and the United States also condemned what it called "cowardly acts of terrorism".
Somalia has had no effective government since President Mohamed Siad Barre was forced out of power in the early 1990s. Thousands have been killed in Mogadishu in recent years as Islamists battle for control of the capital.
Somali insurgents launched a fresh offensive against the transitional government on May 7 and clashes since then have left more than 250 dead while an estimated 120,000 people have fled the capital.
The transitional government only survives with the backing of the 5 000 African Union peacekeepers from Burundi and Uganda.
At least 60 peacekeepers have been killed since they were deployed in March 2007 to protect strategic sites in the seaside city.
- SAPA