Somali Shebab bomb on UN bus kills at least six

Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shebab insurgents claimed responsibility for the attack, branding the United Nations a “colonisation force in Somalia”.

“Four of the dead are foreigners and two are Somalis,” local police chief Ahmed Abdulahi Samatar said, adding that “seven others were also wounded, two of them foreigners”.

Images from the scene show a minibus marked with the UN logo ripped apart by a ferocious blast.

No details of nationalities of the foreigners killed and wounded were given.

Somali police official Abdullahi Mohamed told AFP that the bomb was “believed to have been attached to the minibus and was detonated near the UN office.”

Witnesses and security officials suggested the explosion could also have come from a roadside bomb that was detonated as the minibus, which is used to transport staff from a guesthouse to the UN compound, was passing.

Garowe, in the northeastern region of Somalia, is capital of the semi-autonomous Puntland region.