United Nations Radio

A suicide car bomb attack in Somalia on Thursday claimed the life of the country's Minister of Security.

Somali refugees

Omar Hashi Aden was in a town north of the capital, Mogadishu, when he died in the blast. Reports say at least 10 others, including Somali diplomats, were also killed. I caught up with the UN envoy for Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah who is currently in Oslo, Norway, for more on the incident.

OULD-ABDALLAH: It was not a classical attack. Three hundred kilometres north of Mogadishu, the Minister was in a hotel with a number of civilians discussing the situation. And a suicide bomber went and blew himself up in a large vehicle, so it destroyed part of the hotel, killed the Minister and others. And the priority now for the investigation is to get his name and his citizenship to say his identity: Is he Somali? Is he a foreigner? And if he is Somali, from where he comes? It was not an attack; it was a suicide bomber, and it is very difficult to prevent totally that possibility from happening.

PENN: Has anyone claimed responsibility for the suicide bomb?

OULD-ABDALLAH: We have seen some people saying that they are behind it, but it has to be checked because in Somalia a large number of people who would like to claim responsibility for a number of reasons. I think it will be necessary to investigate before giving credit, or whatever it is, to those who claim to be behind it. I spoke to the President last night and today. And the President is convinced that there is a foreign hand behind the assassination of his Minister in charge of Security. He has no doubt about it. I respect his opinion, and we will see in the following hours and days who is behind it. But what is more important for me is Somalis have told us we will stop fighting or killing Somalis as soon as Ethiopians withdraw from our country. And Ethiopian troops have withdrawn since January 15, 2009. So we don't understand the continuation of this assassination and killing.

PENN: You mentioned that the Security Minister was at a town about 300 km north of Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. Do we have any idea why he was there?

OULD-ABDALLAH: It is his own constituency. He is from that province, Beledweyne. He was there consulting his own electorate, and it is his native homeland so he was visiting and he was killed there this morning in this attempt against the hotel where he was meeting some civilians and politicians.

PENN: About a couple of weeks ago I spoke to you following the attempted coup, I guess one could say, in Mogadishu. And at the time I had asked you about the security situation there, and you mentioned that Somalia is a difficult environment but that it is not hopeless. Does that assessment still stand?

OULD-ABDALLAH: I would like to confirm that statement because an (assassination attempt) which has succeeded, a suicide bomb, is not necessarily a proof of force. These people didn't come with troops, these people didn't come on foot or in car. It was a suicide bomb-someone determined to die himself. So to me, it is a desperate act: it doesn't mean confrontation, it means killing. And it doesn't affect for the time being my judgment that the Somalia situation is difficult, but manageable. Yes, I confirm that.

PRES: Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah is the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Somalia.

Producer: Dianne Penn
duration: 3'40"