Vocal government critic Amina Mohamed is reported to have been killed in a bomb blast in the Somali city of Beledweyne. Hours earlier, security forces battled armed attackers near Mogadishu’s airport.
A young female lawmaker was killed by a suicide bomber on Wednesday in the city of Beledweyne, around 300 kilometers (186 miles) north of Mogadishu, witnesses and relatives said.
Amina Mohamed, a vocal critic of the government known for her fiery speeches, was killed as she approached a building housing leaders of Somalia’s Hirshabele state.
“I heard a huge blast, I went to the scene which is just at the entrance of the state house,” local elder, Aden Farah, told the Reuters news agency by telephone. “May God rest her soul.”
Two suicide bombers were behind the blast, which killed at least 10, among them other politicians and security officials, the local police spokesperson Hassan Dhi’isow told German news agency DPA.
Deutsche Welle was unable to independently verify the number of fatalities.
It comes just hours after Somali security services battled with armed attackers near Mogadishu’s international airport.
Somali PM orders thorough investigation
Mohamed was running to be reelected in the next Somali elections and was reportedly in the city to defend her seat.
Somali President Mohamed Farmaajo has sent his “deepest condolences to the family and relatives of Amina Mohamed,” the government’s official Twitter page said.
The country’s Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble has said on social media following the apparent bombing: “I strongly condemn the terrorist attack on Amina Mohamed in Beledweyne tonight.”
He also urged security agencies to carry out a thorough investigation into the killing of Mohamed, who he described as an exemplary politician.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Source: DW