A truck bomb in a busy locality of the Somali capital Mogadishu on 14 October killed 358 people and injured more than 400. It is suspected that the terrorist group Al-Shabab is responsible for the bombing.
In the days following the massacre, thousands of Somali people have hit the streets in protest, wearing red head-bands to symbolize the blood of the victims and raising slogans of unity against the Al-Shabab.
The silence of US President Trump and Indian PM Modi – both usually quick to tweet about terror attacks in other parts of the world – on the Mogadishu bombing was conspicuous. Many commented that the silence perhaps reflected a callous unconcern for victims of terrorism who are black and Muslim, since this disrupts the Islamophobic and racist narrative around terrorism. While an official US statement declared that the US “will continue to stand with the Somali government,” many recalled that Somalia was one of the countries on Trump’s ‘travel ban’ list, a fact that made Trump’s personal silence and hypocrisy resonate louder.
