Six people were killed on Friday April 22 in Mogadishu in a suicide attack targeting a restaurant on the beach, which notably hosted the Somali police chief and elected officials, AFP learned from the emergency services and the police.
Officials were not injured in the explosion, which caused a fire inside the building and sparked panic among customers.
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“
There was an explosion in the restaurant, probably caused by a suicide bomber, but we don't know the reason yet
,” said a member of the police, Mohamed Ali.
“
The chief of police was in the restaurant when the explosion occurred but he is safe and sound, as are several elected officials who were present
,” he told AFP.
Seven injured
According to the director of the ambulance service Aamin Ambulance, Abdikadir Abdirahman, "
six people were killed and seven others were injured in the explosion
".
The blast was followed by sporadic gunfire, said Farah Dahir, a customer at a nearby restaurant.
“
I can see several ambulances coming to the scene at the moment, but it is very difficult to know what exactly happened, the area is completely cordoned off by the police
”, he added, questioned by the AFP.
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This explosion comes a few days after a mortar attack which targeted the Somali Parliament on Monday, claimed by radical Islamists Shebab.
These mortar fires targeted the Parliament at the time when the deputies met within the framework of an electoral process having to lead to the appointment of a new president.
Several people were injured, but no elected official was hit by the shrapnel that landed in the fortified airport compound near the Parliament Building in the capital Mogadishu.
Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabaab have been leading an insurrection against the Somali state for more than ten years.
The insurgents, driven out of the main cities of the country, including the capital Mogadishu in 2011, remain established in vast rural areas.
In recent months, they have intensified their attacks.
On March 24, an attack on Mogadishu airport, the most secure place in the country, killed three people and in the center of the country, 48 people perished in a double attack.