by Abby Gray ’18
On Oct.14, at least 358 people were killed during a double car bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia, and many more were injured. Some injured victims were airlifted to Turkey for further treatment.
Officials are calling this attack one of the deadliest since radical Islamist uprisings began in Somalia in 2007. Although no group has claimed responsibility yet, some believe the attack was carried out by a group called The Shabaab, a jihadist fundamentalist group from East Africa. The Shabaab is pledged to the Islamic State group and has carried out multiple car bombings previous to this most recent occurrence.
Since the collapse of the Somali government, The Shabaab and other militant Islamic groups have caused chaos in the capital of Mogadishu and throughout Somalia. This attack, although one of the largest, was one of the many that the Somali people have endured over the last two decades.
According to The New York Times, “the Somali president, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, declared three days of national mourning. He donated blood for the victims and asked his fellow citizens to do the same.”