Attack leaves six dead at a police station

Six people were killed and six others were injured Sunday night (09.05.2021) in a suicide bomber attack on a police station in Mogadishu, the Somali capital.

The attack took place at 21:30 (local time and Kenya time) at a police station in Wamberi, in the southern part of the city, on the busy Maka al Mukarama road.

“Six people, four civilians and two policemen, were killed in a suicide bomber attack on a police station,” Sadiq Dudis, a Somali police spokesman, told AFP, adding that six other people had been injured.about:blank

The target of the attack was the commander of the police station, who was killed, Mr. Dudis clarified.

“The blast was so powerful that it destroyed parts of the building,” Ibrahim Mohammed, a senior Somali police officer, told AFP. According to eyewitnesses, it also caused damage to adjacent buildings.

Hassan Mohammed, an eyewitness in his car at the time of the blast, said he saw “many people lying on the street”. “I was shaken in my car at the time of the explosion,” he said.

The Maka al-Mukarama highway, one of the capital’s main thoroughfares, was temporarily cordoned off by police, eyewitnesses said.

No action has been taken so far; however, Shebab, an al Qaeda-linked jihadist group, has often launched attacks on government officials and security forces in Mogadishu.

Shebab, which has vowed to overthrow the fragile Somali government backed by the international community, owned part of the capital before being ousted in 2011 by AMISOM, the African Union military mission.