afrol News, 18 June - A roadside bomb killed three policemen in Mogadishu just few minutes after Somali president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed motorcade had passed.

President Yusuf has been targeted several times in recent months, including by a mortar attack on his plane as he flew to Djibouti to meet with UN officials to push for a peace deal.

Reports said a bomb detonated near Al-Mathal School, south Mogadishu, as an armoured vehicle went past on patrol. An attack followed fierce fighting in Mogadishu on Tuesday in which at least seven people were reported dead when Somali and Ethiopia troops sealed off the toll road where Somali leader's convoy returning from Djibouti were expected to pass.

A joint battalion has prevented civilian vehicles from using Makka Almukaramah, a route used by senior government official's convoys regularly towards the presidential palace.

Somalia has seen a string of assassination plots and explosions on government officials in recent months since Islamic insurgents demanded withdrawal of Ethiopia troops who had backed Somali government since 2006.

Mr Yusuf's government signed a ceasefire with an opposition bloc last week in peace talks held in Djibouti, but some Islamists rebels rejected the deal saying it will only accept a deal when Ethiopian troops withdraw from Somalia. The three-month ceasefire provides for Ethiopian troops to leave the country within 120 days.

Somalia, which has been plagued by dragging civil war displacing millions is also facing a huge food crisis. UN officials had this week warned of increasing Somali population in dire need of food, saying emergency food aid is likely to rise to about 3.5 million in the coming months.

UN's humanitarian co-ordinator for the region, Mr Mark Bowden said fighting between rival militias, successive droughts, sharply rising food prices and a collapse of the Somali currency were contributing to current deepening crisis in Somalia.

Somalia has experienced almost constant civil conflict since the collapse of Mohamed Siad Barre's regime in January 1991.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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