Roadside bomb kills 16 in south Somalia

A roadside bomb explosion in southern Somalia has killed at least 16 people and wounded many more, mostly women and children, officials say. The attack occurred at a vegetable market in the town of Baidoa on Monday. Baidoa, which was a major base for Somali militant group al-Shabab, until Ethiopian troops and Somali soldiers seized the key town in February, is expecting 2,500 African Union troops to be stationed alongside Ethiopian troops. This is the latest in a string of blasts that have recently rocked the war-torn country. On Wednesday, at least 10 people were killed and many wounded when a bomber attacked the National Theater in Mogadishu. Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. The weak Western-backed transition government in Mogadishu has been battling al-Shabab fighters for the past five years, and is propped up by a 12,000-strong African Union force from Uganda, Burundi and Djibouti. Strategically located in the Horn of Africa, the country remains among the ones generating the highest number of refugees and internally-displaced persons in the world.