Somali minister dies of bomb attack injury

Somalia’s sports minister has died in a Saudi hospital weeks after he was critically wounded in a bomb attack at a medical graduation ceremony in Mogadishu.

Saleban Olad Roble passed away on Friday in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, where he and other victims of a suicide blast on the December 3, 2009 at the Shamo Hotel had been flown for treatment.

Twenty-two people were killed, including three other cabinet members — the ministers of education, higher education and health — and 10 members of Benadir University’s faculty and students.

“We are arranging a state funeral,” Mohamed Ali Nur, Somalia’s ambassador to neighboring Kenya, told Reuters. “We are still not sure whether his body will be carried back from Saudi Arabia. Our condolences go to his family and colleagues.”

December’s bombing demonstrated once again the rebels’ ability to strike the government at will, and stoked frustration in the country’s fragile administration over delayed pledges of military support and cash from Western donors.