Bombings in Mogadishu

Since 2008, there have been several bombings in Mogadishu. Some of these have clearly been part of the Somali Civil War while the relationship between other bombings and the war remains unclear.

2008
The 2008 Mogadishu bombings occurred on 3 August 2008. A roadside bombing killed 21 women who were cleaning rubbish from a southern Mogadishu street on Sunday morning, a hospital official said. Mogadishu residents gathered around victims of the bomb attack along the city's Maka Al Mukarama Road. The bomb blast wounded another 46 people, most of them Somali women who had gathered to clean Maka Al Mukarama Road in southern Mogadishu's Kilometer 4 district, according to Medina Hospital director Dr. Dahir Dhere.

It is unclear who was behind the attack. Mogadishu Mayor Mohamed Omar Habeb Dhere, who was recently fired by the country's prime minister, blamed the Islamic Courts Union for waging the attack. But the head of the Islamist insurgent group, Abid Rahim Ise Adow, denied any involvement and blamed Somalia's government for orchestrating the attack. The victims were participating in a program that allows Somali women to work as street cleaners in exchange for food. The United Nations' World Food Program organized the program, which began last year and is administered by Mogadishu's regional authority.

African Union base
Two large-scale attacks against AMISOM soldiers carried out by al-Shabaab suicide bombers in Mogadishu, Somalia occurred in 2009. One occurred in February while the other occurred in September.

On 22 February 2009, an attack was carried out by Al-Shabaab against the base of the African Union Mission to Somalia in Mogadishu. The attack, carried out by a suicide bomber in a car and one on foot, left 11 Burundian soldiers dead and 15 others seriously hurt. The car bomber was a Somali contractor who had easy access to the base. The Burundian troops, part of the 3,400 strong AU force in Somalia, were unloading supplies when they were hit by the blast.

On 17 September 2009, twin suicide bombings ripped through the headquarters of AMISOM in Mogadishu, killing 17 soldiers in the deadliest such attack against the mission. The bombers were able to enter the base using two stolen white UN cars and struck a meeting between the peacekeepers and the transitional government. Brigadier General Juvenal Niyoyunguruza of Burundi, the deputy head of AMISOM, was killed in the blast, while the mission's Ugandan commander, General Nathan Mugisha, was wounded. Of the dead peacekeepers, 12 were Burundian and five were Ugandan. Four Somali civilians also died in the attacks, which wounded 40 people. Shelling by both insurgents and AMISOM after the bombings killed 19 Somali civilians.

Hotel Shamo
The 2009 Hotel Shamo bombing was a suicide bombing at the Hotel Shamo on 3 December 2009. The bombing killed 25 people, including three ministers of the Transitional Federal Government, and injured 60 more, making it the deadliest attack in Somalia since the Beledweyne bombing on 18 June 2009 that claimed more than 30 lives.

The attack took place inside the meeting hall of the Hotel Shamo in Mogadishu during a commencement ceremony for medical students of Benadir University and was carried out by a suicide bomber dressed as a woman, "complete with a veil and a female's shoes", according to Minister of Information Dahir Mohamud Gelle. According to witnesses, the bomber approached a speakers' panel, verbally greeted them with the phrase "peace", and detonated his explosives belt. Former Minister of Health Osman Dufle, who was speaking when the blast happened, reported that he had noticed an individual wearing black clothing moving through the audience immediately before the explosion.

The ceremony—the second since Benadir University was formed in 2002 and a rare event in war-torn Somalia—had attracted hundreds of people. In attendance were the graduates and their family members, University officials, and five ministers of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG). Security inside the meeting hall was light and all of the ministers' bodyguards were outside the hall.

2010
The May 2010 Mogadishu bombings were an attack at a mosque near the Bakara market on 1 May 2010. The bombs killed at least 39 people and injured around 70 others.

The bombings occurred around 1 pm local time (10 am UTC). The bombs were placed at opposite ends of the ground floor of the Abdala Shideye Mosque as people were awaiting the Dhuhr midday prayers. It is believed that Fuad Mohamed Qalaf, an upper-level official within al-Shabaab, was the intended target of the attacks. Qalaf was reported to have suffered only minor injuries to his hands.

The attack was the deadliest in Mogadishu since the Hotel Shambo bombing in December 2009. Information Minister Dahir Mohamud Gelle said it was the first such attack in a mosque in Somalia.

Ambassador Boubacar Gaoussou Diarra, representing the African Union, said "Indiscriminate attacks on public places like today's incident cannot be condoned. I, on behalf of the African Union, would like to call upon all warring parties in the Somali Conflict to stop such barbaric attacks on innocent civilian population." While al-Shabaab has accused private Western security firms, no group has claimed any kind of responsibility for the bombings.

2011
A truck carrying explosive was driven into a government ministry and was subsequently detonated. The attack comes after the militant group Al-Shabaab withdrew its troops from Mogadishu. The attacks killed 70 and injured more than 42 people.