Residents await Somalia President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud arrival in Barawe, a port town recaptured from the militant Shebaab insurgents south of the capital Mogadishu. Mohamud said over the weekend that he would halt charcoal exports from Barawe, where UN investigators said the Al Qaeda-affiliated insurgents had benefitted from the illegal trade.

Agencies/Mogadishu

Suspected Islamist rebels detonated a car bomb near a popular hotel and cafe in the centre of the Somali capital yesterday evening, killing at least six people, police and witnesses said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the Islamist militant group Shebaab has frequently set off bombs or launched gun attacks in Mogadishu. It promised more attacks after it lost control of a major coastal stronghold a week ago.

“Now I see six dead bodies,” police officer Major Nuur Farah told Reuters, adding that other casualties had been taken to hospital after the explosion. “We believe Shebaab is behind the blast.”

Reuters witnesses at the scene, which lies along a major Mogadishu thoroughfare, saw at least three dead bodies. The gate and chairs of the Oromo cafe were destroyed, and blood was spattered at the scene.

The wail of ambulance sirens filled the air after the explosion at a busy time of the evening in the city, which the government is struggling to secure even though Shebaab militants lost control of the capital in 2011.

Shebaab wants to topple the government, which it says is a puppet of Western powers, and aims to drive out African Union peacekeepers, who still provide the backbone of security as the Somali army is slowly rebuilt to form a national force.

Separately, a prominent Somali journalist was rushed to the hospital yesterday after he was shot outside his home by unknown gunmen.

Abdirisak Jama Elmi was shot three times in the stomach in Howlwadag neighbourhood in Mogadishu at approximately 12.15pm (0915 GMT), his colleagues and local residents said.

The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) condemned the shooting.

“Elmi received almost three bullet wounds to various parts of his stomach and one of his two hands and he had lost consciousness by the time he was taken to Medina hospital, where he underwent surgery” said NUSOJ secretary general Mohamed Ibrahim.

A Somalia University teacher was also wounded in the attack, witnesses said.

Elmi is the Mogadishu director of London-based Somali Channel Television.

No group has claimed responsibility for the shooting.