Somali prime minister survives stadium blast

A BLAST yesterday killed at least seven people and injured an unknown number at a government rally in Mogadishu’s soccer stadium, exploding 10 yards from the new Somali prime minister who had just begun a speech.

Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi, who was not harmed, described the explosion as an accident, and another government official said the cause was under investigation.

“What happened was an accident, which will not deter us and the international community from continuing our common endeavour to relocating the government back to Somalia,” said Mr Gedi, who had called the rally to discuss plans to bring his government back to Mogadishu from exile in neighbouring Kenya.

The government formed in 2004 has not been able to return to Mogadishu because of security fears. Somalia has been without a central government since 1991, when clan-based warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned their weapons on each other.

The blast happened yards from Mr Gedi, deputy parliament speaker Ismail Ilmi Boqore, who was with Gedi at the time, said.

Mr Boqore added that none of the diplomats or government officials who accompanied Mr Gedi to the rally was harmed.

“We are still investigating what caused the explosion, who was behind it and the exact number of the casualties of the day,” said Colonel Abdi Hassan Awale.

“Most of the people were injured in what was a virtual stampede,” Col Awale said. “Others sustained injury while jumping over the walls of the stadium.”

Hundreds of people had gathered in the stadium to hear Mr Gedi.

Mr Gedi arrived in Somalia on Friday for his first trip home since he took office. Hundreds of people had cheered Mr Gedi when he arrived at the airport, where members of Somalia’s former military formed a guard of honour for him. Trumpets sounded and the Somali national anthem played.

Islamic extremists and some of the country’s dozens of warlords oppose the new government, which was formed in neighbouring Kenya under the auspices of a regional bloc, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, and the European Union.

President Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed has called on the African Union to send 20,000 peacekeepers to secure Somalia and to guarantee the new government’s safety and disarm the militias that currently roam the country with impunity.

So far the AU has only offered to send a few thousand troops.