05/03/2010

News / UN envoy speaks out against deadly attack on Somali mosque

2 May 2010 – The top United Nations envoy to Somalia today strongly condemned yesterday's deadly attack on a mosque in the troubled country's capital, Mogadishu, calling for an end to indiscriminate killings.

According to media reports, at least 30 people were killed and dozens injured when bombs exploded at the Abdalla Shideye Mosque in the Bakara market.

“This was a brutal attack on people who had gone to the mosque to pray,” Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the Secretary-General's Special Representative, said.

The attack on the market, which is controlled by extremist groups opposing the Government, can only serve to escalate the violence the country has experienced for the past two decades, he emphasized.

“We do not know yet who was behind these blasts, their motivation or who the victims were, but ultimately it is the Somali people who pay the high price,” the Representative said. “This action is not in the interests of dialogue or of bringing stability to Somalia.”

He urged Somalis to “strive for a peaceful future for the sake of themselves, their children and their country.”

With 1.4 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), some 570,000 refugees in the region and nearly 3 million people dependent on humanitarian aid, Somalia – which has been devastated by factional fighting and without a functioning central government since 1991 – remains the setting of one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=34565&Cr=somali&Cr1=

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