Nine killed as prime minister's convoy ambushed

At least nine people were killed and several others injured on Sunday when a convoy of cars carrying interim Prime Minister Ali Muhammad Gedi was ambushed in a Mogadishu suburb, sources in the Somali capital said on Monday.

"A remote-controlled device went off as the vehicle carrying the prime minister was passing by," said Abdirahman Dinari, the government spokesman.

Gedi was visiting from Jowhar, where the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) is based. It was his second visit to Mogadishu since his appointment as prime minister late last year.

Gedi’s last trip to the capital was marred by an explosion while he was addressing a public rally at a football stadium on 3 May. The blast killed 15 people and injured 50, medical sources said at the time.

Dinari said the prime minister and his entourage were travelling from the airport into the centre of the city when gunmen attacked the convoy, hurling grenades and detonating a remote-controlled landmine.

"Between seven and nine people were killed and about 20 injured, five of them seriously," reported a medical source. Most of the injured were taken to Hayat and Medina hospitals, both in south Mogadishu, according to Muhammad Ibrahim, a doctor at Medina hospital.

Gedi was saddened by the loss of life and sent condolences to the families of those who died, said Dinari.

Dinari said that the ambush would not change Gedi's programme: "He will continue with his schedule as planned. If those behind the attack expected the prime minister to leave the city without accomplishing what he came for they are mistaken."

The aim of the trip was to end divisions within the TFG and open dialogue with "dissident members of the cabinet in the city and resolve their differences", said Dinari.

In June, President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, Gedi and their supporters in the transitional federal institutions relocated from Nairobi to the town of Jowhar, 90 km north of Mogadishu. They maintain that Mogadishu must be secured before they can transfer the government to the Somali capital.

About 100 members of the 275-strong Transitional Federal Parliament - led by Speaker Sharif Hassan Shaykh Aden - currently are trying to restore stability to the war-scarred city.

There have been numerous attempts by the international community and the UN to mediate an end to the divisions. In August, François Lonsény Fall, the special representative of the UN Secretary-General to Somalia, presented an "agenda for dialogue" to Somali leaders to help them find a way forward.

Fall praised Gedi's decision to go to Mogadishu, which was announced on 15 September. "The international community welcomed the prime minister’s initiative and promised material support for it," said a statement issued by the Nairobi-based UN Political Office for Somalia at the time.

According to Dinari, Gedi was expected to stay in Mogadishu for a "few days" and then return to Jowhar.

Meanwhile, the UN Political Office for Somalia has condemned the "assassination attempt" against Gedi. A statement issued on Monday said that Fall called Gedi after learning of the attack and expressed relief that the prime minister had escaped unharmed.

Fall’s deputy, Babafemi Badejo, said he was pleased that Gedi had escaped harm but saddened by the loss of life and injuries suffered by those in his entourage. "These continued acts of violence are to be condemned," he said. "They are an assault on the peace process and on the hopes of the Somali people for an end to 14 years of insecurity."

It is not clear who was behind Sunday's attack. Dinari said that a commission of inquiry would "investigate the attack and report back to the cabinet".