Somalia: Pope prays for victims of Mogadishu bombing

Last updated: Thu 31 Mar 2022 PM

After the prayer of the Angelus on Sunday 29 December 2019, Pope Francis expressed his spiritual closeness to Somalia, which is mourning its deaths after the attack that killed more than 70 people on Saturday 28 December.

"We pray to the Lord for the victims of yesterday's horrific attack in Mogadishu, Somalia, where more than 70 people died in a car bomb explosion. I am close to all their families and to those who mourn their loss," said Francis, inviting them to pray a Hail Mary after the prayer of the Angelus.

According to a final report on Sunday, the attack on a busy street in the capital, Mogadishu, left more than 79 people dead and nearly 100 injured.

The attack has so far not been claimed but suspicions are focused on the shebab affiliated to Al Qaeda, the Somali Islamists driven out of Mogadishu in 2011 who are responsible for most of the attacks so far in this country located at the eastern end of the Horn of Africa (East African Peninsula).

Since 2015, there have been thirteen attacks in Somalia, according to Agence France-Presse.

Source: Vatican News