The huge resources deployed to prop up Somalia’s central government are not being used where they are most needed in the fight against al Shabaab, says Horn of Africa expert Matthew Bryden, a day after Somalia’s deadliest attack in two years.
A massive car bomb exploded in a busy area of Mogadishu on Saturday, leaving at least 79 people dead and scores injured, with officials warning that the toll could rise further.
At least 16 of those killed were students from a local university, who had been travelling on a bus when the car bomb detonated at a busy intersection southwest of the Somali capital.
While the attack has not been claimed, experts said the car bombing bore all the hallmarks of past attacks by al Shabaab militants allied to al Qaeda.
“The fact that we haven’t seen a claim of responsibility from al Shabaab fits a historical pattern, where when a bomb goes off in the wrong place or kills lots of civilians they do not claim responsibility for the attack – even though they are most likely to have carried it out,” said Bryden, head of the Sahan Research think tank, in an interview with FRANCE 24.