On Friday, a suicide bomber triggered an explosion at a tea shop in Somalia’s capital, resulting in the death of at least seven individuals, according to an eyewitness and medical staff.
The explosion on Friday afternoon took place at a checkpoint along a road leading to the parliament and the president’s office. The tea shop is commonly visited by soldiers, as reported by the witness.
“I have counted and helped transport seven dead people and six others wounded, most of them soldiers,” Ahmed Ali, a witness at the scene of the explosion, told media.
The party responsible for the attack remained unclear at the time of reporting. There was no immediate response from police or government officials when contacted for comment.
In previous instances, the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group has asserted responsibility for similar attacks in Mogadishu and various regions of Somalia.
In June, al Shabaab, a group with the goal of overthrowing the central government and imposing its stringent interpretation of Islamic law, carried out an attack in which they killed 54 Ugandan soldiers at their base located to the southwest of Mogadishu.
