Print

Mail

wiki links

Somali leader's convoy hits landmine

Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi escaped unharmed after his convoy hit a landmine that failed to explode in northern Mogadishu, a Somali official said on Thursday.

Gedi was heading to a ceremony at the capital's main airport for the departure of the bodies of four Ugandan African Union peacekeepers killed the previous day.

"A landmine which was planted to hurt the Somali prime minister failed to detonate," an official from Gedi's office said, requesting anonymity.

He said the landmine let off huge clouds of smoke.

A witness said the prime minister's officials jumped off their vehicles and fired into the air after hitting the landmine.

"Some suspects have been apprehended by the police who are investigating the matter," Somali Deputy Defense Minister Salad Ali Jelle said.

No one was injured in the incident in the Juba neighborhood of northern Mogadishu, the third attempt on Gedi's life since he was nominated to head Somalia's transitional government in 2004.

Gedi had been heading to Mogadishu International Airport, from where the bodies of the four Ugandan peacekeepers killed by a roadside bomb on Wednesday left for Kampala.

One child was killed and another injured in that blast.

Five peacekeepers were also injured, three of whom were being treated in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Thursday.

"We condemn the barbaric act done by some troublesome people who want to discourage AMISON forces," Gedi said earlier at the airport ceremony.

AMISON, the African Union force in Somalia, currently comprises some 1,500 Ugandan soldiers. The African body is struggling to gather a total of 8,000 troops.

The force's spokesman, captain Paddy Ankunda, was undeterred on Thursday.

"People die and it was their day," he said of Wednesday's deaths. "We are still strong and this is not something that could discourage us."

In Kampala, a spokesman for the ministry of defence said that the mission would stay in Somalia, and improve security measures.

"The commanders on the ground will have to adjust the operations so that similar incidents do not occur in the future," major Felix Kuraije said.

"Whoever thought that by attacking our troops we would pull out must forget it," he added.

AU commission chief Alpha Oumar Konare expressed his "utter shock and disbelief" at the attack, which brings the number of Ugandan peacekeepers killed since their March deployment to five.

The troops are due to take over from Ethiopian forces who helped Somali troops expel an Islamist movement from south and central Somalia at the start of the year.

However, Konare told reporters this week that an Ethiopian withdrawal before the full deployment of African peacekeepers would result in "catastrophe."

An Ethiopian-Somali offensive last month ended weeks of clashes with Islamist-led insurgents that killed hundreds of civilians and forced tens of thousands to flee.

More than a dozen people have been killed and scores wounded in separate attacks since then, mainly by homemade bombs and grenades.

Somalia, a nation of 10 million people, has been without an effective government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre sparked a bloody power struggle that has defied numerous attempts to restore stability.

This story has been viewed 1809 times.