Assassination attempt

last updated 8 January 2015

Baidoa, Somalia

Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed survived a massive car bombing attack this week that killed eight people, including his brother. The bomb went off as the presidential motorcade was leaving the converted grain silo that serves as the parliament building. Panicked deputies fled the building as cars burned all along the street. Yusuf blamed the attack on al Qaida, which is thought to have members sheltered in the Islamist-controlled south of the country. The transitional government, set up by international mediators, is extremely weak and controls only a small part of Somalia. The president has been trying to negotiate a power-sharing agreement with the Islamists. “It will jeopardize the peace process if it becomes very obvious that the Islamists are behind this terrorist act,” said Foreign Minister Ismail Hurre Buba. The Islamists say Ethiopia did it.