MOGADISHU, 7 November 2005 — An explosion tore through a convoy of cars carrying Somalia’s Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Gedi here yesterday killing six but leaving him unhurt, hospital sources and residents said.
Government aides said a land mine caused the explosion, which sharply raised tensions in a city controlled largely by Gedi’s political foes.
One government source said unidentified attackers had thrown a hand grenade under Gedi’s car as it passed seconds before the land mine blast in an apparently coordinated attack.
The blast set ablaze at least one vehicle among several that were ferrying Gedi and one of his deputies from an airstrip to the lawless Indian Ocean city.
“Five seconds after the blast, there was an exchange of fire, I don’t know who between,” a wounded man who had been riding in the convoy said from his hospital bed. “The tires on our car were shredded by bullets.”
Gedi had flown in from his headquarters north of the capital to try to hold talks with a dissident faction of ministers based in Mogadishu to end a rift in the government that has stirred fears of renewed civil war in the chaotic Horn of Africa nation.
Six people were killed in the blast, the medical sources said, and a government source said four of the six had been burned beyond recognition. About 20 were wounded.
“It struck the car directly behind the prime minister’s car, and that vehicle burst into flames,” Ali Nur Sahal, an aide to Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Aidid, said. “We believe it was a land mine.”
Aidid, also interior minister, had welcomed Gedi at the airstrip and was also in the convoy. He too was unhurt. Gedi, based in the town of Jowhar 90 km (55 miles) north of Mogadishu, was visiting for only the second time since he was appointed as part of a Transitional Federal Government (TFG) formed at peace talks in Kenya in 2004.
The TFG is the 14th attempt to reinstate central government since the 1991 toppling of former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. But the administration has found it difficult to impose any authority on the warlords who still control much of the country.
Most of the government’s ministers work from Jowhar, arguing that the capital is too dangerous. But a dissident faction is based in Mogadishu, as is Aidid, who has tried to steer a neutral course between the two groupings.
Experts say both factions of the government are gearing up for a military showdown, and a UN report by a panel of experts said government ministers on both sides had bought large amounts of weapons in recent months in breach of a UN arms embargo.
On Gedi’s first visit to Mogadishu in May, 14 people were killed in an explosion at a rally he was addressing. Again, he was unhurt. The cause of that blast has not been established.
Gedi went on radio after yesterday’s blast to say he would meet other ministers in Mogadishu. He did not mention the blast. Commerce Minister Muse Sudi Yalahow, a Mogadishu warlord opposed to Gedi, said: “I do not know who was involved, but I am deeply shocked and sorry that this happened. I condemn those who planned it and those behind this attack.”
