An Islamist suicide bombing outside a school in Somalia's capital killed eight people and wounded 17 including 13 children, the latest in a string of deadly blasts this year in a country beset by political turmoil and drought.
The bombing at around 7:30 a.m. was claimed by al Shabaab militants, who said they were targeting a United Nations security convoy passing near the school.
A column of smoke rose over the Mocaasir Primary and Secondary School, where classroom ceilings crashed onto students' desks, witnesses said. Video footage and photographs showed two walls of one classroom in pieces and a chalkboard with a scrawled sentence still intact. School buses and cars were blasted into heaps of metal.
AlShabab blast by school in Somali capital kills at least 8 https://t.co/5aHjnXMoHz#Somalia #Mogadishu pic.twitter.com/rh2LKnI2aH
— Somalitopnews (@somalitopnews) November 25, 2021
A UN staff member speaking on condition of anonymity said no international personnel from the UN were hurt but they had no information on whether Somali employees were hurt.