The speaker of Somalia’s lower house of Parliament has strongly condemned Monday’s “cowardly, merciless and unreligious” bombing of a military base that claimed the lives of 25 soldiers and injured more than 70 others. 

Sheikh Adan Mohamed Nur, popularly known as Adan Madobe, said he suspects “traitors” may have facilitated the bombing. 

“I know among the officers there are good, hard-working, dignified people but that traitors have facilitated this. I suspect that a lot. It’s intolerable,” he said in a video posted by state media. 

The al-Shabab militant group claimed responsibility for the attack. In a statement on Telegram, al-Shabab said one of its suicide bombers carried out the strike. 

Suicide vest used

The bomber detonated a suicide vest as the soldiers lined up after breakfast. The soldiers had been recently deployed to Mogadishu for additional training and re-equipping, officials confirmed.  

Nur, who is now the acting president as President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre are away from the country, ordered a “rigorous” investigation into the matter. 

“I order the officers and all the security personnel in charge of the security, who are honest, to rigorously investigate this,” he said. 

“The criminals who are hiding among the army who are facilitating for the enemy must be apprehended and brought before justice. … I want a satisfactory answer,” Nur said.

Meanwhile, two Somali security officers told VOA that agents investigating the bombing have arrested at least three military officers, including a colonel, in connection with the incident. 

The officers, who asked not to be identified because they are not allowed to publicly speak to the media, insisted that the three officers are suspects only, and that they will be questioned about how the suicide bomber managed to access the base. 

Highly fortified base

One of the officers insisted that the bomber was not a member of the Somali National Army.  

But a second officer said that in addition to the soldiers targeted, the base was being used by different units, including personnel from the land forces and military transport sectors of the army. 

“It’s possible the bomber exploited that lack of knowledge among the soldiers at the base,” he said. 

Nur said he wants answers as to how the bomber was able to access a highly fortified base. 

“This is not a place you can just show up. It’s not a normal place,” he said. 

He said it’s “disappointing” that soldiers who are ready to sacrifice their lives for the country have been “massacred” at their base. 

“If they had been killed [on] the battleground, the Somali people would have just said, ‘May Allah bless their souls.’ But it’s disappointing they have been massacred [on] their base,” he said. 
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