From VOA, May 4:
At least 14 people are now dead following an explosion that rocked a soccer stadium in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, as the prime minister addressed his supporters. The cause of Tuesday’s blast is still unknown. Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi, who was not harmed, has insisted the explosion was accidental. But other unnamed Somali officials and diplomatic sources have told various news agencies the blast was an attempt to assassinate Mr. Gedi… This is his first visit to the Somali capital since he was appointed to the nation’s first central government in 13 years. Mr. Gedi’s tour was designed to boost support for his adminstration and end a dispute among lawmakers about where and when the Somali government, now based in Kenya, should relocate.
Somalia’s new and largely powerless government may claim the blast was an accident, but it seems to have had a political impact. A day after the blast, Uganda’s government announced it was indefinitely postponing plans to deploy peacekeepers to Somalia. The Uganda-led peacekeeping force is empowered by the African Union to oversee installation of the new government, which is still operating out of Nairobi. Kampala’s New Vision newspaper reported May 3 that Somali warlords had refused to withdraw their forces from Mogadishu, and pledged to resist the peacekeepers.
As WW4 REPORT has discussed, Washington counts lawless Somalia as a regional haven for Islamic terrorists, and Uganda is perceived by some to be a regional U.S. proxy state.
