Jihadist group Al-Shabaab is suspected to have detonated a car bomb outside a cafe in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, while football fans watched the Euro 2024 final, causing five fatalities.
Five people were killed in a powerful car bomb blast late Sunday at a cafe in the Somali capital Mogadishu that was packed with football fans watching the Euro 2024 final, local media said, citing police.
“A car bomb detonated tonight outside Top Coffee Restaurant… placed by Kharijite terrorists,” the Somali National News Agency reported, using the term officials adopt to describe the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab jihadist group.
“Preliminary police reports confirm five fatalities and around 20 injuries,” SONNA cited police spokesman Major Abdifitah Aden Hassan as telling state media.
Police have cordoned off the area, which is close to the presidential palace compound known as Villa Somalia and was very busy at the time of the bombing.
Al-Shabaab has been waging a bloody insurgency against Somalia’s fragile federal government for more than 17 years and has carried out numerous bombings in Mogadishu and other parts of the country.
