☰

Global

Bomb hits Somalia's biggest bank, cash transfer agency


    MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A bomb exploded outside the headquarters of Somalia's biggest bank and money transfer agency on Tuesday, wounding at least two people hours after al Qaeda-linked militants ordered the company to cease operations in areas under its control.

    Police said they were still searching the rubble outside Dahabshiil's office in the capital Mogadishu. Its doors were shattered by the blast but it was not immediately clear whether anyone had been killed.

    "A remote-controlled bomb planted in front of Mogadishu's Dahabshiil bank and money transfer headquarters injured two guards," police captain Nur Hassan told Reuters.

    Money transfer agencies like Dahabshiil have become increasingly important to the Horn of Africa country's fractured economy, which lacks a developed banking sector after 20 years of civil conflict.

    Earlier, members of Somalia's al Shabaab Islamist group walked into Dahabshiil branches in the country and demanded they close, accusing the company of working for aid agencies banned from territories they govern, according to a statement on the movement's website www.somaliamemo.net.

    Security in Mogadishu has improved greatly since al Shabaab Islamists fled the coastal city after a military offensive in August 2011, but bombings and assassinations - blamed on militants - still occur often.

    (Reporting by Abdi Sheikh; Writing by James Macharia; Editing by Andrew Heavens)