Somalia condemns Sunday’s deadly attack in Cairo

Somali president has strongly condemned as “cowardly” a bomb attack on Sunday that claimed innocent lives in Egypt’s capital Cairo.

The attack on the church, adjacent to the Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, killed 25 people, mostly Christians, and wounded dozens of others.

“Somalia strongly condemns this criminal terrorist act which runs counter universal human values and the principles of heavenly religions,” said Mohamud in statement.

Mohamud extended its condolences to the families of the victims and the Egyptian people.

The statement stressed Somalia’s solidarity with Egypt in countering terrorist acts, regardless of their origins or their motives.

At least 24 people died and 49 were wounded when a bomb exploded in a chapel adjoining St Mark’s Cathedral, Cairo’s largest church and seat of the pope.

Security sources said at least six children were among the dead, with a bomb containing at least 12 kg (26 pounds) of TNT detonating on the side of the church used by women.

The chapel’s floor was covered in debris from shattered windows, its wooden pews blasted apart, its pillars blackened. Here and there lay abandoned shoes and patches of blood.