Roadside Bomb in Somalia Kills 4 Unicef Workers

ISMA’IL KUSHKUSH

20 April 2015

KHARTOUM, Sudan — At least four Unicef staff members were killed and four others were severely wounded in northeastern Somalia on Monday when a roadside bomb exploded near their minibus, a United Nations statement said.

The attack occurred as the staff members were traveling to an office in Garowe from their guesthouse, a drive that normally takes three minutes, the statement said.

The Shabab, a Somali Islamist extremist group linked to Al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack, The Associated Press reported.

The Shabab struck twice last week in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. Gunmen killed a regional lawmaker there on Saturday, and an attack outside the Ministry of Higher Education building on Tuesday left at least 19 people dead. The group also staged an assault on a university in eastern Kenya this month, killing nearly 150 people.

Nicholas Kay, the United Nations special representative to Somalia,condemned the attack via Twitter, saying that he was “shocked and appalled by loss of life.”

Garowe is the capital of Puntland, a semiautonomous region in northeastern Somalia where attacks by the Shabab are not common.

Featured Image: This image made from video shows the scene following a bomb attack on a van carrying U.N. employees. Copyright: The Associated Press

by

by