A Taste of Hope in Mogadishu - NY Times

[Qandalawi]

Excellent article, finally a ray of hope amid the brutal devastation our capital has suffered for two decades.

[Mintid Farayar]

One day later.....

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

April 4, 2012

Deadly Blast Shatters Calm in Somali Capital

 

By MOHAMMED IBRAHIM and J. DAVID GOODMAN

 

MOGADISHU, Somalia — A deadly bomb exploded during a ceremony on Wednesday at the newly reopened National Theater in the Somali capital as the prime minister was addressing the guests, turning an event that had been a welcome sign of growing calm into a grisly reminder of the many troubles still plaguing the country.

 

Officials said the prime minister was unhurt but the death toll was not immediately clear. The event had been attended by many other high-ranking officials, journalists and civil society activists. Reuters said at least six people had been killed and scores wounded. The Associated Press put the toll at 10 and said two top sports officials were among the dead.

 

“The prime minister was speaking inside the theater when the blast took place,” Prosper Hakizimana, an African Union spokesman, told Reuters.

 

Somali officials said a female suicide bomber was responsible. But in a claim of responsibility, the Shabab, Somalia’s radical Islamist insurgent group, said its operatives had planted explosives at the theater in advance. “Everything was carefully planned and orchestrated,” the organization said in Twitter message.

 

The blast came amid significant signs of improvement in the capital, Mogadishu, a rubble-filled city ravaged by 21 years of civil war. Mogadishu has been enjoying a prolonged period of relative peace, preserved in part by 10,000 African Union troops, soon to be increased to 17,000, who patrol the streets in tanks, artillery and armored personnel carriers.

 

Hundreds of thousands of residents have returned in recent months, aid groups said, fueling an economic boom that has created thousands of jobs and had begun to draw young men away from violence and bloodletting. Construction is taking place across the city, yielding new hospitals, homes, shops and a hotel.

 

The theater, which remains without a roof since it was destroyed during Somalia’s civil war, had recently held its first concert in more than two decades, during which time the space had been used as a weapons depot and then as a toilet.

 

But the powerful blast transformed the hopeful gathering there late Wednesday morning into a macabre scene. Photographs showed one of the dead slumped but still seated in his black chair as sun streamed into the theater. Security forces helped dazed and bloodied survivors to ambulances waiting outside.

 

Following the reported deaths of the sports officials, Aden Yabarow Wiish, president of the Somali Olympic Committee, and Said Mohamed Nur, the chief of the country’s soccer federation, the International Olympic Committee said in a statement that both men had been “engaged in improving the lives of Somalian people through sport and we strongly condemn such an act of barbarism.”

 

Mohammed Ibrahim reported from Mogadishu, Somalia, and J. David Goodman from New York.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/05/world/africa/deadly-blast-shatters-calm-in-somali-capital.html?hp&gwh=5FE17C4C8C0A26AEAB1D2B46370211A6

[Mario B]

^^ Oh well, we must keep calm and carry on.