MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th July, 2022) At least 14 people, including regional ministers of health and women's affairs and the former deputy parliament speaker of the Hirshabelle State of Somalia, were killed in a bomb explosion, media reported on Sunday, citing officials.
According to the Somali Guardian, a truck bomb exploded near the Nur Dob hotel located close to the region's presidential compound in Jowhar, a town situated 90 kilometers (56 miles) north of the capital of Somalia. The hotel building and the nearby houses were extensively damaged.
Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre "expressed his grief over Sunday's cowardly terrorist attack," as quoted by the Somali Guardian.
Al-Shabaab terrorists (affiliated with the Al-Qaeda terror group, banned in Russia) based in Somalia claimed responsibility for the explosion, which happened only a few weeks after Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud vowed to eliminate the group in a special campaign.
Somalia collapsed as a unified nation in 1991 with the downfall of Siad Barre's dictatorship. The international community recognized the Federal government as the only legitimate authority in the country, which controls the capital Mogadishu and several other areas. The rest of Somalia is controlled by self-governed or unrecognized state entities.
The Al-Shabaab group is waging an armed struggle against the central government of Somalia, impedes UN humanitarian activities, and still controls large areas of southern and central parts of the country. In May, the United States decided to renew their strikes against the group's positions in order to combat the growing threat that is poses to US partner forces.
