Spain and England fans killed in Somalia Car bombing while watching Euro 2024 final

MOGADISHU, Somalia - A car bomb killed five people in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu on Sunday, police said, linking the al-Shabaab militants to the incident, the first in as many months without the city, which has been enjoying relative peace.

The explosion took place outside a cafe, where people watched a Spain and England match, Maj. Abdifitah Aden Hassan, spokesman for Somali police. At least 20 other people were critically injured after the incident, he added.

Pictures posted online and purporting to be from the scene showed a fire burning outside the café in the aftermath of the explosion. This is the first major incident in the country in as many months.

“Some of the spectators got injured while trying to jump the perimeter wall of the café, and others got wounded in a stampede,” witness Ismail Adan said by phone.

Most of the victims were in the street at the time of the explosion, he said. Although it was not immediately clear who orchestrated the attack, Al-Shabaab militants are known for such cowardly attacks in the country for the last 17 years.

Attacks by the Islamic militant group al-Shabab are frequently reported in Mogadishu and elsewhere in Somalia. The group opposes Somalia’s federal government, which depends on the support of foreign troops to stay in power.

That calm was broken on Saturday with an attempted jailbreak by inmates inside a Mogadishu prison. In that attack, in which at least eight people were killed, prisoners convicted for their roles in al-Shabab attacks exchanged fire with prison guards before they were killed.

The government has been fighting the al-Shabaab for the last two years, managing to liberate several strategic towns in the process. The government of Somalia projects that by December 2024, the Al-Shabaab will be defeated as the country returns to normalcy.

GAROWE ONLINE