Suicide Attack in UN and Ethiopian embassy in Somalia

Wednesday, October 29, 2008 at 3:25 pm under World Breaking news Suicide Attack in UN and Ethiopian embassy in Somalia

Mogadishu: Five suicide bomb attacks, including one on an Ethiopian embassy and one on a UN compound, rocked Somalia Wednesday, witnesses said.

Witness Farhaan Omaye told Deutsche Presse Agentur dpa that three near-simultaneous bombs went off in in Hargeysa, in the breakaway northern state of Somaliland.

The Ethiopian embassy and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) compound were targeted, as was Somaliland’s presidential palace.

Two other bombs exploded in the semi-autonomous state of Puntland at the offices of the Puntland Intelligence Service in the port town of Bosasso, witness Mohamed Ali told dpa.

There was no immediate information on casualties.

Puntland and Somaliland are normally relatively peaceful compared to Central and Southern Somalia, where a bloody insurgency is raging.

Somali insurgents have been fighting the transitional federal government since Ethiopian troops helped oust the Union of Islamic Courts in early 2007.

A ceasefire, due to come into force on November 5, was agreed on Sunday night. The ceasefire was part of a deal agreed in in June.

However, main insurgent group al-Shabaab has rejected the deal and vowed to keep fighting until Ethiopian forces leave Somalia.

Aid agencies say almost 10,000 civilians have died and almost one million have fled, especially from the capital city Mogadishu, during the insurgency.

The Horn of Africa nation has been plagued by chaos and civil war since the ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. (dpa)