By: Danielle L. Gwozdz
Impunity Watch News Reporter, Africa

MOGADISHU, Somalia – At least 16 people have been killed and more than 30 people injured after a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded restaurant in the central Somalia town of Beledweyne.

Al-Shabab said it had carried out the bombing targeting troops in an African Union peacekeeping force fighting the Somali Islamist group.

The bombing happened at a restaurant near a military base around 210 miles north of Mogadishu. The city is under control of the central government and AU peacekeepers from Djibouti.

“Our main target was Ethiopian and Djibouti troops who invaded our country. They were sitting there,” al-Shabab’s military operation spokesman, Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, said.

But witnesses have reported that most of those killed by the bomb were civilians.

“There is a lack of medicine in the hospital and they can’t cope with the flood of wounded patients, so we asked the central government to send us planes to evacuate patients,” Mr Jessow said by phone.

“A man with an explosives jacket entered unexpectedly in the tea shop where soldiers and civilians sat . . . and blew himself up,” local elder Ahmed Nur said from the scene of the blast.

 “I could see the bodies of several soldiers being carried, but I could not make out whether they were dead or injured.” Al-Shabaab frequently attacks political targets, as well as restaurants, and other recreational spaces popular with foreigners and government soldiers.

 Al-Shabab militants have been driven out of Somalia’s major towns, including Mogadishu and the key southern port of Kismayo, by a UN-mandated AU force of some 18,000 soldiers.

 But the militants still control large parts of southern Somalia.

 Last month the group claimed the attack on the Westgate shopping center in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, in which 72 people died in a four day siege.

 Straddling a major highway that links south-western Somalia to southern and northern parts of the country, Beledweyne is the maine gateway to the Ogaden region in Ethiopia and a strategically vital area that Addis Ababa has often controlled.

“In a way this attack is also a message of weakness as al Shabaab are not able to carry out a conventional assault on the town in the way they use to two years ago,” analyst Abdi said.

 Ethiopian troops have been fighting Islamist militants in neighbouring Somalia for much of the past decade.

 For more information, please visit:

 BBC News – Somali suicide bombing kills AU soldiers in Beledweyne – 19 October 2013
The Frontier Post – Somali bombing kills AU soldiers – 20 October 2013
Yahoo! News – Suicide bomber kills 16 in Somali cafe attack aimed at foreign troops – 19 October 2013
The Guardian – Al-Shabaab suicide bomber attacks restaurant in Somalia – 19 October 2013
Standard Media – Al Shabaab claims responsibility, says AU forces were the target – 19 October 2013