2020 Afgooye bombing

On 18 January 2020, a suicide car bombing struck near Afgooye, a town in Somalia's Lower Shabelle region located roughly 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the capital, Mogadishu. The attack killed four people and injured at least 20 others. Most of the casualties were police officers who were providing security for Turkish contractors engaged in road construction in the area.

According to a Somali police commander, the intended target of the attack was the Turkish construction workers. The suicide bomber drove a car into an area where the engineers and their police escorts were having lunch, detonating the vehicle. Local witnesses described the explosion as "massive" and reported "clouds of smoke" following the blast.

The al-Qaeda-linked extremist group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the bombing, issuing a statement saying it was "behind the martyrdom of the suicide car bomb in Afgoye." Al-Shabaab originated as the armed wing of the Islamic Courts Union, which splintered into several factions after being defeated in 2006 by Somalia's Transitional Federal Government and its Ethiopian military allies. The group has frequently carried out attacks in and around Mogadishu in an effort to undermine Somalia's central government, which is backed by the United Nations and African Union peacekeeping forces (AMISOM). Its most severe prior attack, on 14 October 2017, killed more than 500 people in twin bombings in Mogadishu.

The bombing occurred amid substantial Turkish involvement in Somalia's reconstruction and humanitarian efforts. Turkey has been a major donor of humanitarian aid to Somalia, maintaining an embassy in Mogadishu until the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991. During the 2011 drought, Turkey contributed more than $201 million to relief efforts in affected areas of Somalia. Turkish assistance has also included building hospitals and helping renovate the Aden Adde International Airport and Somalia's National Assembly building.

In response to the attack, Turkey's Ministry of National Defense stated on Twitter: "We curse and condemn in the strongest terms the bomb terror attack which targeted innocent civilians in Somalia."