Peace shattered as 20 die in bomb attack

Published on Monday 4 August 2008 01:02

THE fragile peace in Somalia was blown apart yesterday when a roadside bomb killed at least 20 people.

Hidden under rubbish on a busy road in the Waberi district of the capital, Mogadishu, the device instantly claimed the lives of ten women street cleaners.

One witness, Farah Abdi, said: "It was an ugly scene with blood everywhere. I could not count the dead, I just ran for my life."

Another witness, Fardowsa Ahmed, said: "We have now collected the pieces of nine dead women and still there are other parts scattered. A minibus full of seriously injured women was rushed to hospital."

A spokesman for the nearby Medina hospital said: "We received 46 injured, including two men, most of them serious. The two men and two other women died in the emergency room."

The explosion follows a peace agreement struck last month, which has fuelled power struggles within both the transitional government and the Islamic insurgency it is fighting.

On Friday, a roadside bomb killed a Ugandan member of a small African Union peacekeeping force based in the capital.

And in separate attacks on Saturday night, Islamic insurgents reportedly targeted the military bases of Somali government troops and their Ethiopian allies in north Mogadishu's Towfiq neighbourhood.

The attacks signal an end to the period of relative calm that followed the signing of the peace deal, which is on shaky ground after 10 of the United Nations-backed government's 15 cabinet ministers said they would resign in protest over recent measures taken by prime minister Nour Hasan Hussein.

They were angry that he tried to fire the mayor of Mogadishu without consulting them and accused him of misusing state funds. Mr Hussein has said that the resignations were designed "to derail the ongoing reconciliation process".