MOGADISHU: Fifteen people died and four others were wounded Wednesday when the minibus they were travelling in ran over a landmine on the outskirts of Somalia's capital Mogadishu, the government spokesman said.
"A heinous incident ... 15 innocent people were killed. This act is an indication (of) how ruthless terrorists are," government spokesman Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu wrote on Twitter, blaming the attack on Al-Shabaab.
He said the attack took place about 50 kilometres (31) miles north of Mogadishu.
Earlier Andikarim Mohamed, a government official from the south-central Hirshabelle region, said 14 had died and four were wounded "after a minibus travelling along the road between Mogadishu and Balcad ran over a landmine."
Somali military commander Abshir Mohamed, who works in the area, also blamed the incident on the Al-Qaeda-linked Al Shabaab militants who carry out regular attacks in the country.
"The terrorists are indiscriminately targeting everybody. They planted the mine that had killed those innocent civilians who were going about their business," he told state media.
Witness Mohamud Adan told AFP he saw the "dead bodies of ten people" taken from the scene of the explosion.
Al-Shabaab controlled the capital until 2011 when it was pushed out by African Union troops, but still holds parts of the countryside and carries out regular attacks against government, military and civilian targets.
15 killed as minibus hits landmine in Somalia: Official
https://arab.news/bsasv
15 killed as minibus hits landmine in Somalia: Official
- 14 people died when the minibus they were travelling in ran over a landmine on the outskirts of Mogadishu
- President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed's four-year term expired in February and his successor was meant to be chosen by a new crop of legislators
Islamist militants show ‘unprecedented coordination’ in Burkina Faso attacks
- The assaults were on several towns in the north and east including Bilanga, Titao, Tandjari and Nare
- The operations targeted military detachments, civilian convoys and market areas
DAKAR: Islamist militants have killed dozens of soldiers and civilians and overrun an army detachment over the past week in coordinated attacks across multiple regions of Burkina Faso, according to internal reports by two diplomatic missions reviewed by Reuters.
The operations by Al Qaeda–linked Jama’at Nusrat Al-Islam wal-Muslimin show the JNIM is increasingly able to mobilize across large swathes of territory at one time, said the reports, which described a list of locations and places that came under assault.
Burkina Faso’s military rulers seized power in a coup in 2022, promising to improve security. But militants’ attacks have increased in the West African country as state forces battle an insurgency that has spread across the Sahel from Mali.
The assaults were on several towns in the north and east including Bilanga, Titao, Tandjari and Nare, the diplomatic reports said. One also described an assault in the eastern city of Fada N’Gourma and flagged another in the northern Ouahigouya area.
“These attacks, which were almost simultaneous and spread across several provinces, demonstrate unprecedented coordination between militants and the junta’s inability to contain the assaults,” said one of the internal reports, which put the death toll at more than 180.
The other gave no toll but said the incidents appeared coordinated and involved several hundred militants serving JNIM and possibly Daesh affiliates.
The operations targeted military detachments, civilian convoys and market areas, it said.
JNIM has said it killed scores of troops from the Burkinabe army in attacks in the past week, US-based SITE Intelligence Group said on Monday.
Burkina authorities did not respond to a request for comment on the assaults or casualty reports.
INJURED GHANAIANS RETURN HOME
In the northern town of Titao, militants attacked an army base and set a market on fire, the internal reports said.
Nearly 80 soldiers and pro-government militia members were killed, one said. The other said about 10 civilians were killed there.
The dead civilians included eight tomato traders, Ghana’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
SITE quoted a media unit for JNIM as saying the insurgents had seized military vehicles, guns and other possessions in the assaults. More than a decade of insurgencies in the Sahel has displaced millions and engendered economic collapse, with violence pushing further south toward West Africa’s coast.
JNIM claimed nearly 500 attacks in Burkina Faso in 2025 and nearly 300 in Mali, SITE’s director, Rita Katz, said in a social media post on LinkedIn.
