An explosion at Mogadishu’s Benadir Hospital, near a ward where children and victims of the famine are treated, killed one nurse and wounded five others Sunday night.
The bomb, which left a large hole in the wall separating doctors’ lounges, exploded sometime after 11 p.m. and sent patients scrambling for cover.
“We didn’t have anywhere to run, we hid under the bed,” said 48-year-old Amino Mohammed, as she sat with her daughter on Monday and recalled the blast.
A 22-year-old nurse, who apologetically gave his name only as Mohammed for fear of repercussions, had been working Sunday night, dispensing medications to the babies on the ward when the explosion occurred.
“I was standing there,” he said, pointing to an area near the lounge where the bomb was planted. “I fell on the ground. I couldn’t see anything because of the smoke. Patients were shouting. I was laying on the ground for 10 minutes. When I got up I saw two girls who were injured.”
No one has claimed responsibility for Sunday’s bombing in one of the most secure areas of the city.
Mogadishu has been calmer since Al Shabab, the militant Islamist group that has pledged allegiance with Al Qaeda, fled the capital in August. They are now fighting in the south against combined forces from Kenya, Ethiopia, Burundi, Uganda and with the support of the U.S.
The Shabab, itself weakened by the famine, said the retreat was “tactical” and that they would return to Mogadishu using asymmetrical warfare. On Oct. 4 they did, with a truck bombing that killed 70, mainly students applying for foreign scholarships.
If the Shabab is responsible for Sunday’s bombing, it would be the first time they’ve hit a hospital — although in the past they’ve targeted foreigners working with Médecins Sans Frontières and a graduation ceremony for medical students in Mogadishu.
At the hospital, there was little time to mourn the dead.
On Monday, all that was left of the explosion area was a ceiling pockmarked from ball bearings. Chunks of concrete sat on the table of an adjoining room, still set with a white tablecloth and a vase of flowers. Women tried to clean the floor with disinfectant.
Benadir is the capital’s main hospital and has been overflowing with famine victims who have fled to Mogadishu from the south. It is estimated that more than 30,000 children have already died in the famine and tens of thousands more remain at risk as disease hits the crowded camps and hospitals.
The hospital is also a popular spot for visitors including Somali-Canadian singer K’naan, who made a surprise stop in August during his trip to Mogadishu. It is the hospital where he was born. Last month, the Toronto Star spent a week in the hospital profiling the case of one malnourished child, 3-year-old Abdisalam Osman.
Later Monday, the Shabab banned 16 aid groups, including half-a-dozen UN agencies, from central and southern Somalia. The ban is likely to affect poor residents, hundreds of thousands of whom are suffering from the region’s drought and famine. A year-long drought wiped out crops and animal herds in the region, killing tens of thousands of people during the last six months and forcing tens of thousands more the flee as refugees.
Al Shabab said in a statement in English that the ban had been decided after a “meticulous year-long review and investigation” by their “Office for Supervising the Affairs of Foreign Agencies.” The committee, said the statement, had documented “the illicit activities and misconducts of some of the organizations.”
The aid groups are accused of disseminating information on the activities of Muslims and militant fighters, financing, aiding and abetting “subversive” groups seeking to destroy the basic tenets of the Islamic penal system, and of “persistently galvanizing the local population” against the full establishment of Sharia law, a harsh and punitive interpretation of Islam.
Among the agencies Al Shabab banned on Monday were UNICEF, the World Health Organization, UNHCR, the Norwegian Refugee Council, the Danish Refugee Council, German Agency For Technical Cooperation (GTZ), Action Contre la Faim, Solidarity, Saacid and Concern.
The Al Shabab statement accused the groups of misappropriating funds, collecting data, and working with “international bodies” to promote secularism, immorality and the “degrading values of democracy in an Islamic country.”
Britain will seek to build consensus on measures to tackle instability and piracy in Somalia, such as improved humanitarian aid and economic support, when it hosts a major international conference next February.
The meeting, to be hosted by British Prime Minister David Cameron, will be held on Feb. 23 in London, Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Monday. The high-level conference is expected to gather regional players, as well as representatives from the United States and other countries, a government source said.
With files from Michelle Shephard and Star Wire Services
Source: The Star
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