Sunday, August 03, 2008
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| Shocked Mogadishu residents gather around victims of the bomb attack along the city's Maka Al Mukarama Road. |
The bomb blast wounded another 47 people, most of them Somali women who had gathered to clean Maka Al Mukarama Road in southern Mogadishu's Kilometer 4 district, according to Medina Hospital director Dr. Dahir Dhere.
"It suddenly turned the area into a carnage, scattering body parts of the street cleaners into a large area," said witness Asha Ise Gedi. "There were pools of blood everywhere. I have never seen such mass killing."
"They were innocent poor mothers or sisters," Gedi said. "Why did they deserve this?"
Mogadishu has been the site of raging violence in recent months between Ethiopian troops and Islamist fighters.
Somalia's current transitional government is trying to maintain control of the capital, with the help of the better-equipped Ethiopian forces.
On Saturday, two-thirds of the Somali government ministers announced their resignations, blaming Prime Minister Nur Hassan Nur Ade's "dictatorship," which they said included his firing of Mogadishu's mayor.
Nur Ade said he suspected the mass resignations were aimed at weakening implementation of the peace agreement between Somalia's transitional government and the opposition Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia.
He said he had no plans to resign.
The peace plan's implementation will bring a ceasefire and increased security that will allow international humanitarian aid to reach displaced people in Somalia, he said
Sourcd: CNN, Aug 03, 2008