Somalia: Mogadishu – October 14th Monument
On October 14, 2017, a truck loaded with two tons of explosives blew up on busy road intersection, resulting in 587 dead. This is the deadliest terrorist attack in Africa and the second deadliest since 2000 in the entire world (after 9/11). As we drove through this intersection, we got seriously stuck in almost standstill traffic of trucks and tuk-tuks. This is where I really felt uncomfortable, especially as the guide said “that’s how it happened on October 14: it was a traffic jam and a large truck just rammed through all the tuk-tuks until security blew its tires and the driver detonated, flattening the nearby building and making all the tuk-tuk fly.” As we crawled through this insane intersection – a roundabout of sorts but nothing’s moving – I most certainly felt my palms sweat. But everything was ok and we safely made it to the hotel in the green zone, behind loads and loads of fortifications. Interestingly, the truck bomb was actually intended to breach into the green zone, but the driver got stopped a mile early (although he was able to pass two previous checkpoints as security was bribed there).
