Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Somalia: A bomb blast kills five Ugandan troops in Mogadishu







Aweys Osman Yusuf

Mogadishu 16, May.07 ( Sh.M.Network)
At least five AU/UPDF forces were killed in a bomb explosion on Wednesday morning. AU spokesman in Somalia, Paddy Ankunda, has told Shabelle that five Ugandans perished in the bomb blast that was targeted at an AU convoy passing near former Finance Ministry in Mogadishu’s Hamar Weyne district, an area frequented by Somali government troops.








AU spokesman in Somalia, Paddy Ankunda

Witnesses told Shabelle that they saw pieces of human flesh on the ground where the explosion occurred.



Government soldiers soon sealed off the area after the incident.



AU troops in Somalia have been busy de-mining Mogadishu lately as they seemed to gain confidence from the population in Mogadishu. They have never been targeted until Wednesday morning.


The Somalia government has not commented on the event which came as the volatile country’s president, Abdulahi Yusuf, is in the Ugandan capital, Kampala where he and his counterpart Mussevani, appealed for the deployment of more African peacekeepers in Somalia.


Meanwhile Mogadishu mayor, Mohammed Dheere, imposed a curfew on Heliwa district, north of Mogadishu, the Somali capital, after the district commissioner, Abdulahi Sheikow, was killed.


Dheere said the curfew will be in place until security is improved.


Abdulahi Ibrahim Sahal, Hamar Weyne chairman, said two children were wounded in the explosion.


No one has yet claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s bomb attack