The death toll has risen to 20 people on Sunday following two suspected suicide bombers that struck in the southern Somali city of Baidoa on Saturday, a local hospital official said.
“We received 20 dead people and about 40 others injured from the twin blasts of yesterday,” Abdifatah Hashi, the General Manager of Baidoa city hospital, told reporters on Sunday.
Al Qaeda-affiliated al Shabaab militants, who want to topple Somalia’s Western-backed central government and impose their own rule based on a strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law, claimed responsibility for the attacks.
“What seems to be two suicide bombers blew themselves up in two restaurants in Baidoa,” Ali Aden, a Police officer in the city, told Reuters on Saturday.
Residents of Baidoa told Reuters they heard two loud blasts in the early evening, followed by huge plumes of the smoke. Read more