Bus with soccer players exploded in Somalia at the start of key elections
MOGADISHU, Somalia – Four local footballers in Somalia were killed when an explosion believed to have been caused by a bomb ravaged their bus on Friday, police and witnesses said.
Ten players from the Jubaland Chamber of Commerce and Industry club were on their way to a game at the stadium in the city of Kismayo in southern Somalia when the blast struck.
“The players were on a bus when the explosion occurred, presumably inside the vehicle. Investigations are ongoing but we suspect the device was planted on the bus,” said the policeman Mohamed Sadiq.
He said four football players were killed and five others injured.
“The explosion was huge and it caused a devastating fire which burned the bus down, people rushed to remove corpses and injured players,” Witness Ibrahim Ahmed said.
“I saw the burning bus and three corpses of players – it was horrible because football players are not politicians,” added another witness, Said Adan.
The explosion in Kismayo, capital of the southern state of Jubaland, bordering Kenya, was not immediately claimed.
Jubaland was the first state to start voting this week in long-delayed national elections in Somalia that the al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group Al-Shabaab threatened to disrupt.
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