Mogadishu: A young female lawmaker was killed by a suicide bomber on Wednesday in the city of Beledweyne, around 300 kilometres (186 miles) north of Mogadishu, witnesses and relatives said.
Amina Mohamed, a vocal critic of the government known for her fiery speeches, was killed as she approached a building housing leader of Somalia’s Hirshabele state.
“I heard a huge blast, I went to the scene which is just at the entrance of the statehouse,” local elder, Aden Farah, said “May God rest her soul.”
Two suicide bombers were behind the blast, which killed at least 10, among them other politicians and security officials, the local police spokesperson Hassan Dhi’isow told German news agency DPA.
Deutsche Welle was unable to independently verify the number of fatalities.
It comes just hours after Somali security services battled with armed attackers near Mogadishu’s international airport.
Mohamed was running to be reelected in the next Somali elections and was reportedly in the city to defend her seat.
Somali President Mohamed Farmaajo has sent his “deepest condolences to the family and relatives of Amina Mohamed,” the government’s official Twitter page said.
The country’s Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble has said on social media following the apparent bombing: “I strongly condemn the terrorist attack on Amina Mohamed in Beledweyne tonight.”
He also urged security agencies to carry out a thorough investigation into the killing of Mohamed, who he described as an exemplary politician.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.