Car bomb explosion claims 20 among them family of 12 in Mogadishu market

A family of 12 and eight other people perished in Mogadishu’s Wadajir District Sunday afternoon when a car parked with explosives near a restaurant blew up.

Goobjoog News security correspondent at the scene says only the body of the family’s mother had been recovered while the rest of the members could not be identified. “The family lived next to the restaurant so they were directly hit by the explosion which also killed people at the restaurant including government soldiers,” our correspondent said.

A vehicle fitted with improvised explosive device and parked near a restaurant at Kawa-guday area blew up killing people in the restaurant among them government soldiers and other people who were having lunch.

The explosion destroyed shops around the place leaving in its wake death and destruction in the small market.

Wadajir District commissioner Ahmed Adulle Afrah told the media at the scene the explosion went off at around 1 pm and confirmed the casualty figures. “Twenty people have been confirmed dead and more than 50 others have been injured. The car which had been parked near the restaurant exploded killing many people,” said Afrah.

Only small pieces of metal from the car which exploded could be seen signifying the magnitude of the explosion, the first major attack since the new president Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo took office this past week.

A sizeable part of the market was destroyed. Our national security correspondent says the explosion could have been remotely detonated or was set to explode on its own at a particular time.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. The militant group Al-Shabaab has on several occasions carried out such attack in Mogadishu.