The terrorist group Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for an attack Monday that authorities said killed seven people, most of them U.N. workers, in a northeastern Somali city.
UNICEF, the U.N. aid agency focused on children, said four of its staff members were killed and four others wounded in the attack in the city of Garowe. The wounded are in a serious condition, the agency said.
Garowe is the administrative capital of the autonomous Puntland region in northeastern Somalia.
Ahmed Abdullahi Samatar, the police chief of Puntland, said the attack killed four foreigners, two Somalis and the bomber. The two Somalis were U.N. workers, he said.
The circumstances of the attack were still emerging Monday.
UNICEF said a blast from an improvised explosive device hit a vehicle taking its staff members from their guest house to their office. The local police chief said the bomber was inside the vehicle among the U.N. staff.
‘Shocked and appalled’
Garowe is the administrative capital of the autonomous Puntland region in northeastern Somalia.
“I condemn attack this morning on UN in Garowe. Shocked and appalled by loss of life,” Nick Kay, the special representative of the U.N. secretary general for Somalia, said on his Twitter account.
“The UNICEF colleagues were an integral part of UNICEF’s work in Somalia, dedicated to improving the lives of others,” it said.
Abdiaziz Abu Musab, the military operations spokesman for Al Shabaab, said the group was behind the attack.
The al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group, which is based in Somalia, caused outrage earlier this month by carrying out an attack on a Kenyan university that killed close to 150 people, most of them students.