A landmine blast killed at least 10 civilians, injuring others on Sunday, a government official has confirmed. The explosion targeted a minivan ferrying civilians along the road linking Mogadishu and Afgooye in Somalia.
According to report by Reuters, the vehicle was carrying passengers, mostly from the same extended family, from the city to a funeral in a nearby town, when it hit the explosive at Hawa Abdi village, 19 kilometres northwest of Mogadishu.
The road is used frequently by government and security vehicles.
“I carried four dead people including my father in law,” Nur Haji Ahmed told Reuters from Madina hospital in Mogadishu, where the injured were taken. He had rushed to the scene after a phone call from a relative.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack from any group.
Somalia has been mired in conflict since 1991, when clan warlords overthrew dictator Siad Barre and then turned on each other.
Since 2008, the Islamist militant group al Shabaab has been fighting to overthrow Somalia’s central government and establish its own rule based on its own harsh interpretation of Islam’s sharia law.
