Blast, Stampede Mar Somali Premier’s Rally

An explosion at a rally for Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi frightened supporters into rushing out of Mogadishu’s stadium Tuesday, leaving at least 10 people dead and 60 injured. The prime minister escaped unharmed.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether most of the casualties were from the blast or the stampede that followed.

Gedi said the explosion was an accident, but investigators said they were still looking into the cause of the blast, which underlined the security fears that have kept the nation’s government in exile.

Gedi, who was on his first trip home to Somalia since he took office last year, pledged that the explosion would “not deter us and the international community from continuing our common endeavor to relocate the government back to Somalia.”

The government has sat in Kenya since it was formed in 2004 and is opposed by Islamic extremists and some of the country’s dozens of warlords.

Somalia has been without a central government since 1991, when clan-based warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, then turned their weapons on one another.

Tuesday’s blast went off about 10 yards from Gedi, said Deputy Parliament Speaker Ismail Ilmi Boqore.