This archive report was first published on 4 July 2020.
Published on July 4, 2020, a devastating explosion shook parts of Mogadishu, the Somali capital, as a suicide car bomber drove into a checkpoint just outside the port.
Witnesses described the scene as chaotic, with metal debris falling all over the port area and gunfire erupting in the aftermath of the blast.
"Metal debris fell all over us inside the port and we heard gunfire," said a port worker who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons. "Security forces have surrounded the area," they added.
At the city's Madina hospital, a nurse, Halima Nur, confirmed that the hospital had received five people injured in the blast for treatment.
Since 2008, the Islamist militant group al Shabaab has been fighting to overthrow the central government and establish its rule based on its own harsh interpretation of Islam's sharia law.
Somalia has been mired in conflict since 1991, when clan warlords overthrew dictator Siad Barre and then turned on each other.
