The former Somali embassy of West Germany went up in flames in the city of Bonn. Amateur footage circulating online shows the compound ablaze with smoke billowing.
According to local media reports the fire was caused as a result of vehicle that caught fire, which than spread to the abandoned compound that once hosted the Somali embassy. Firefighters in the city of Bonn where able to quickly douse the blaze before it could spread.
The Somali government maintained an embassy in the city of Bonn, Germany during the height of the Cold War when the city of Bonn was the capital of West Germany prior to German unification.
As revealed in archive Somali government files, the Somali embassy in West Germany was the largest Somali diplomatic mission in Europe. The Somali embassador to West Germany was Mohamed Ibrahim Liqliiqaato.
Somalia under the leadership of Mohamed Siad Barre maintained dozens of embassies and diplomatic missions throughout Europe before the fall of the government.
