Hiiraan Online
Friday October 12, 2018
MOGADISHU (HOL) – Somali authorities erected a monument to commemorate the over 700 people killed in the country’s deadliest bombing on Oct. 14 last year, just two days before the nation holds nationwide memorial events marking the first anniversary of the catastrophic day.
The bombing by a massive truck bomb has hit one of the city’s business districts, devastating an entire area full of business premises and hotels and killed nearly all people around and afar. The powerful blast has also left hundreds of people missing and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.
The metallic monument, painted in blue-colors and built by the local government has been erected along Zobe, a junction on a business district in the Somali capital as well as the site of the devastating bombing is expected to be the congregation site for the people marking the upcoming anniversary.
Mogadishu which still bears scars from the bombing is preparing to remember those who have been killed on that day, as mood of sadness overwhelmed the city hard hit by the bombing in preparations for groundbreaking ceremonies to remember the dead.
Somali government on Thursday said that Oct. 14 would be declared as a national day to remember the victims of blasts carried out by ‘terrorists’, referring to the Al-Qaeda linked al-Shabab group which often carries out deadly bombings across the country.
According some organizers, Mogadishu’s residents will also observe a moment of silence to mark the time the catastrophic truck bomb went off during the upcoming events.
The anniversary comes as the city residents continue struggling to figure out the motive behind the bombing of which no group claimed to have carried out as all those killed in the blast have been identified as civilians.
Somali government has subsequently blamed al-Shabab for the bombing. However, the group hasn’t so far denied or admitted that it was behind the bombing.