COLUMBUS (AP) — Members of Ohio’s Somali community are condemning a truck bombing in Somalia’s capital that killed more than 300 people and injured hundreds more.
Somalia’s government has blamed the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab, Africa’s deadliest Islamic extremist group, which has not commented on the Saturday attack.
Horsed Noah is the outreach director of Somali Islamic Centers of Ohio, a group representing six Somali mosques and religious centers in central Ohio.
The Columbus area has the country’s second largest population of Somalis after the Twin Cities in Minneapolis.
Noah says his group condemns the bombing, supports Somali’s current government, and calls on people to help victims financially.
Noah says virtually everyone in the central Ohio Somali community has a friend or relative affected by the attack.
A United States military plane has landed in Somalia’s capital with medical and humanitarian aid supplies. A spokesman for the U.S. African Command told The Associated Press that the charge d’affaires with the U.S. Mission to Somalia “declared that this disaster meets the criteria to warrant immediate U.S. government assistance” because of the widespread damage.