Deadly Somalia Bombings Highlight Failed Bid to Quash Al-Shabaab
- Funding shortage hampers fight against militants, analyst says
- Conflict fuels humanitarian crisis in Horn of Africa nation
Somali men carry the body of a victim who died in the explosion of a truck bomb in the centre of Mogadishu, on October 15, 2017.
Three deadly bomb attacks in Somalia’s capital this month have highlighted the failings of a decade-long international effort to quash an al-Qaeda-linked insurgency in one of the world’s poorest countries.
While African Union troops helped the federal government drive the Islamist group known as al-Shabaab out of Mogadishu in 2011, the group has continued to stage assaults in the city. The U.S. blamed it for the country’s deadliest-ever attack -- an Oct. 14 truck-bombing that left more than 300 people dead -- while two weeks later al-Shabaab set off two car bombs that killed 26 people, including two former lawmakers.