"It is as if they want to kill any hopes of a better future"

The latest deadly suicide attack, on 3 December in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, which killed three ministers in the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), has taken the country's violence to a new low.

Dozens of people were killed and many more injured in an explosion at a graduation ceremony held in a city hotel.

This was not the first time that an attack has taken place in Mogadishu, "but it is the worst suicide attack ever", said Ali Sheikh Yassin of the Mogadishu-based Elman Human Rights Organization.

"This time the target was the most important people in Mogadishu; the educators and those who would take their place in the future."

Yassin said the attack had wiped out the best and brightest of the health sector. "We have reached a new low."

He said that whoever was behind this attack "deliberately targeted graduating doctors and their professors”, adding, "it is as if they want to kill any hopes of a better future".

A teacher, who lost a close friend, told IRIN that "these people [perpetrators] are after government people but [also] ordinary people. What on earth did these students or their parents do to deserve this? It seems no matter who you are you are a target. God help us."

Somali government spokesman Abdi Haji Gobdon told IRIN: "I can confirm that the ministers for health, Qamar Aden Ali, higher education, Prof Ibrahim Hassan Adow, and Ahmed Abdullahi Wayeel, minister for education, were killed in a suicide attack this morning."

Witnesses told IRIN the ministers were part of large crowd of people attending a graduation ceremony for medical students of Benadir University in the capital.

The dead also included students, parents, faculty members and journalists, an eyewitness said. He said dozens more were injured, including members of the medical school.

Gobdon said the attack was aimed "at the heart" of the Somali people and the government strongly condemned the act of terrorism.

"These were people celebrating the achievements of young people," he said. "They did not deserve this and those responsible will pay a heavy price."

The eyewitness said the bomb went off at the Shamo hotel as the graduation ceremony was about to start.

"It took everyone near the high table and the area close to it. The hotel is now a shambles."

He said the injured were being taken to Madina hospital. A hospital source told IRIN that up to 100 people, including senior government officials, had been brought to the hospital.

He said close to 50 people were killed in the attack.

Gobdon, however, told IRIN that the government would release the total number of fatalities later in the day. The attack took place at around 11:30am (8:30am GMT) local time.

ah/mw