By Yassin Juma
MOGADISHU
At least five people were killed Monday in a bomb blast targeting government forces in the southern Somali town of Afgoye, a Somali official has said.
"For now I put the death toll at five. Four soldiers and one civilian," Mohamed Mascud of the Lower Shabelle authority told The Anadolu Agency.
"We are still waiting for any updates on the critically wounded," he said.
The bomb went off as a convoy moving from Mogadishu to Marka made a stopover at a tea kiosk.
According to the Internal Security Ministry, the Mogadishu-Afgoye road has recorded the highest number of roadside blasts targeting government troops and African Union peacekeepers
There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack.
Somalia has remained in the grip of on-again, off-again violence since the outbreak of civil war in 1991.
Last year, fractious Somalia appeared to inch closer to stability after government troops and African Union forces – deployed in the country since 2007 – drove Al-Shabaab from most of its strongholds.
The militant group, however, has continued to stage attacks against government forces and African peacekeepers.
