Wednesday November 2, 2022
Mogadishu (HOL) - A memorial service event was held in the capital for the victims of Saturday's terrorist attack in Mogadishu on Wednesday.
Twin car bomb explosions targeted Somalia's Ministry of Education in Mogadishu, killing at least 120 people and injuring over 300.
The Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs organized the memorial, which was attended by government officials, residents and civil society members.
Internal Affairs Minister Ahmed Moalim Fiqi said that government forces were battling al-Shabab on the day they carried out the suicide car bomb attacks at Zoobe junctions. He added that heavy operations were underway against the Al Qaeda-linked militants on several frontlines in the Hiiraan and Middle Shabelle regions. Fiqi called the group cowards for attacking defenceless civilians.
"On the day the cowards attacked civilians in Mogadishu, they (Al Shabaab) were losing ground and men to government forces in the Masjid Ali Gadud area in the Middle Shabelle, Hiiraan, Galgadud, and Bakolbuu village in the Lower Shabelle region. They were afraid of the frontlines, so they came to massacre unarmed civilians at KM5."
The minister urged the community to support and cooperate with the government in the fight against al Shabab, as he commended the security forces and local militias fighting Al Shabaab in different parts of the country.
Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who visited the blast site at the Zobe intersection, said it was similar to the country's deadliest bombing on October 14th, 2017, which killed nearly 600 people.