Grenade Attack Against Children's Hospital In Somalia

April 20, 2005

Mogadishu (dpa) - Two people were injured, one of them seriously, when unidentified men threw a hand-grenade into a childrens hospital in Somali capital Mogadishu at midday on Tuesday, hospital staff said.

One of the injured, a doctor, who was taken to another hospital, said he did not know the attackers.

"I saw the grenade coming toward us, and then it exploded'', he said.

The hospital, managed by the Austrian SOS organization, is located near a kindergarten run by the same group. None of the more than 2,000 children were injured.

An employee at the hospital, Fadumo Hassan Hamud, told Deutsche Presse Agentur dpa that "we dont have another hospital (for children) in Mogadishu, if they ambush and close SOS our children will be without a hospital''.

The grenade attack follows a shooting Monday, in which a woman working for a Scandinavian aid group, IAS, was shot dead by gunmen after the organization had been accused of trying to "Christianize'' Somali youth.

The capital of Somalia remains highly unstable after 14 years of civil war, with warlords and their militias controlling various parts of the city.

A government formed last year after lengthy peace talks still meets in Kenya due to the persistent insecurity at home.