SOMALIA: Students killed in Mogadishu car blast

A truck bomb exploded in a government compound in Somalia's capital Mogadishu on Tuesday, killing at least 70 people - most of them students waiting for examination results and hoping for scholarships to study in Turkey. The compound, which houses eight ministries including education, was targeted for an attack described as the deadliest in months.

Many of the students were with their parents, anticipating the results of ministry of education examinations conducted for scholarships offered by the Turkish government.

"I am one of the students who came here to know the result of the examination. Turkey was taking us, and there were many students. The ministry of education sent us phone calls to come to the ministry. We were awaiting the exam results when the explosion happened. All my friends with me were killed," said Bile Hassan Gutaleh, a student injured in the blast.

"I can feel the future of Somalia ended here, but for the sake of Allah it will not."

According to an eye-witness, most among the crowd of students were killed in the blast. The students had been "very happy" and celebrating their success in passing the scholarship examinations, the witness told a local radio station.

Soon after the attack al-Shabab, an Islamist militant group fighting to overthrow the Somali government, claimed responsibility for the blast on one of its websites.

The bomb was reportedly loaded in a truck and exploded at a security checkpoint at the K4 (Kilometre 4) compound controlled by government forces and African Union peacekeepers. It was the biggest attack since al-Shabab forces were defeated in Mogadishu two months ago and shows up weakness in the UN-backed transition government.

Al-Shabab, which has links to al-Qaeda, believes young people should focus on Jihad and not on secular education. The suicide bomber, identified as Bashar Abdullahi Nur by the group, said as much in a pre-recorded message aired by the al-Shabab radio station. He was reported locally to have been a school dropout who resented young Somalis going abroad to study.

"Students are the target. Look, it is the second time. They [Al-shabab] don't want to leave any window open for Somalia, that is why they are killing students because they think they will come up with a solution soon," Husein Gedow Fahiye, a Somali student, told University World News.

This is not the first time students have been targeted in bomb blasts.

In 2009 a suicide bomber killed 24 people at a Benadir University graduation ceremony in Mogadishu. Most of the casualties were medical graduates but four ministers were also killed, including Higher Education Minister Ibrahim Hassan Adow and Education Minister Ahmed Abdullahi Wayeel.

"We were just students who were aspiring to have a bright future. But that disappeared when a lot of bright students were consigned to graves," Abshir Mahdi Abukar (20), who wants to study economics, told Associated Press from his hospital bed. "Now I'm worried about my future."

Political analysts believe that the bombing was a message for the Turkish government, which has helped Somalis affected by the famine. Turkey also offered scholarships to Somalis, including students in the breakaway republic of Somaliland.

Many Somali students were planning to enrol in Turkish universities and secondary schools. Last month Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ announced that his country would provide scholarships for 500 Somali students to study in Turkish universities in the coming academic year.

Bozdağ said 230 students would attend private universities and 270 would study in state universities under Turkey's newly established scholarship programme for Somali students.

The Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement that Turkey had airlifted many students wounded in the blast, who are being treated in hospitals in Turkey. "We severely condemn this heinous attack that targeted innocent children and their families," the ministry said.

The international community also slammed the attack on students who had been given a rare opportunity to study abroad.

Henry Bellingham, UK foreign office minister for Africa, labelled the bombing "senseless and cowardly". That most of the victims were students and their families proved "the shocking brutality of this attack".

Shamsul Bari, a United Nations (UN) human rights expert in Somalia, told Associated Press: "These attacks, which targeted some of the country's very few university-level students, as well as dedicated civil servants working to enhance Somali public institutions and social services under extremely difficult circumstances, are a direct blow to the fabric - and future - of the nation."

Somalia had been without an effective government for more than two decades. Education is dysfunctional in a country where famine and civil war have hit people hard, and obtaining an education is extremely difficult and often dangerous.

The UN has warned that 750,000 people in East Africa, mostly Somalis, are facing death from starvation in the next few months if the world does not double humanitarian efforts in the famine-struck region.