Outrage over Somalia blast horror

PARIS: Britain, Turkey and the African Union (AU) on Sunday strongly condemned the weekend suicide bombing in Somalia, the worst attack to date with at least 231 deaths.
Saturday’s massive truck blast occurred at a junction in Hodan, a bustling commercial district of the capital Mogadishu, which has many shops, hotels and businesses.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said his country “condemns in the strongest terms the cowardly attacks in Mogadishu, which have claimed so many innocent lives.”
Moussa Faki Mahamat, the chairman of the African Union Commission asked the government “to show renewed unity at this critical time and overcome divisions, to rebuild cohesion at all levels of the federal institutions.”
It said the pan-African body, which has deployed a peacekeeping mission in the east African country, would “continue its support to the Somali government and people in their efforts to achieve sustainable peace and security.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Ankara was sending planes “with medical supplies,” adding that the wounded would be flown to Turkey and treated there.
Somalia’s government blamed the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab group for what it called a “national disaster.”
President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed declared three days of mourning and joined thousands of people who responded to a desperate plea by hospitals to donate blood.