A SOMALI INTERIOR minister has been killed in his own home in what has been reported as a suicide bomb attack carried out by the man’s niece.

The country’s al-Qaeda-linked militant group al Shabab has claimed responsibility for the attack and warned through its spokesperson that the group would continue to target top officials until the government has been brought down.

The BBC reports that Somali officials say Minister Abdi Shakur Sheikh Hassan was killed by his teenage niece, who was a member of al Shabab.

Somalia has consistently ranked highly among the world’s failed states in an index compiled since 2005 by Foreign Policy magazine in conjunction with the Fund for Peace. The Horn of Africa nation has not had an effective government since the early 1990s.

Afrian Union peacekeepers and Somali government forces in the capital said more strident security measures and extra screening would be put in place to avert further attacks.

At least two people died yesterday during protests against a recent agreement which extends the government’s term by a year.

- Additional reporting by the AP