NAIROBI, December 6 – Somali Sports Minister Suleyman Olad Roble died Saturday in Nairobi of wounds sustained during a devastating suicide attack at a graduation in Mogadishu two days earlier, diplomatic sources said.
The ministers of education, higher education and health were also killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up as students were receiving their diplomas in a hotel in the capital.
"The minister died of his injuries at Aga Khan hospital," a Somali diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity. Roble had been transferred to Nairobi on Thursday with serious wounds.
His death brings to 24 the total number of people killed in the bombing, one of the worst ever to rock a country which has been mired in civil conflict since 1991.
Three journalists were also among the dead.
The internationally-backed government blamed the Islamist insurgency but both the Al Qaeda-linked Shebab and their Hezb al-Islam allies denied any involvement, instead pointing to rivalries within state security.
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