A car bomb exploded outside a restaurant in Mogadishu on April 5, killing at least six people and injuring at least ten others, Minister of Information Abdirahman Osman said on his Facebook page.
A car with explosives detonated a Cafeteria outside the ministry of Youth & Sports in #Mogadishu – there are casualties
— Abdirahman O. Osman (@engyarisow) April 5, 2017
This was confirmed in a tweet from the Ministry of Internal Security.
Speaking at the scene of the explosion, Abdifatah Omar Halane, spokesperson for Mogadishu’s mayor, said: “We have confirmed seven civilians were killed in the blast.”
Abdikadir Abdirahman, director of Amin ambulances, told Reuters that they had “carried seven dead people” away from the site of the explosion.
The bomb reportedly targeted a restaurant near the Ministry of Youth and Sports which is not far from the Ministry of Internal Security headquarters.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the blast.
The explosion follows a number of recent car bombs in the Somali capital. On March 21, an explosion killed at least five people and injured ten; on March 13, at least 14 people were killed and 16 were injured in two separate car bomb blasts.
Al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab, which aims to overthrow the Somali government, claimed responsibility for the recent attacks.
Al-Shabab was pushed out of Mogadishu by African Union troops in 2011 but still controls parts of the countryside. It attacks government, military, and civilian targets in the capital and regional towns.
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