4 killed, 5 Turkish workers injured in al-Shabab terrorist attack in Somalia

By:Daily Sabah

Four people, including two Turkish nationals, and several other Turkish laborers were injured after a suicide bomber carried out an attack on a road construction site in Somalia, security sources said Saturday.

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said that the attack took place near the Mogadishu-Afgoya road construction work, which was conducted by a Turkish company. The ministry noted that four Turkish nationals have been injured in the attack.

The Foreign Ministry also condemned the attack and pledged solidarity with the Somalian government and the people.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said 14 people were injured in the attack.

Dismissing earlier reports that the attack targeted Turkish troops in the country, security sources said the perpetrator carried it out against Turkish workers by blowing himself up as he rode his motorcycle.

Abdiasis Abu Musab, military operation spokesman for the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabaab, said the group was behind the attack.

The attack took place some 15 kilometers (9 miles) away from the Turkish military base, Camp TURKSOM, in Mogadishu and no military personnel has been affected by the attack, the sources added.

Turkey’s base in Somalia is its biggest overseas military training base and was inaugurated in 2017.

Turkey’s vast aid effort at the height of the 2011 famine endeared it to many Somali people, and it has continued to pour in aid, much of it from private companies.

It has built schools, hospitals and infrastructure and provided scholarships for Somalis to study in Turkey. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has visited Mogadishu several times and when he made his first trip there in 2011 he became the first non-African leader to visit the war-ravaged nation in 20 years.

Turkey also provided the African nation with over $400 million (TL 3 trillion) in the biggest aid campaign for the country while it was struggling to fight starvation.