Boris Johnson Bizarrely Calls Mogadishu a `Thriving' Capital

(Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson, the British foreign secretary best known for his diplomatic gaffes, committed another eyebrow-raising moment when trying to condemn a fatal bombing in Somalia.

In doing so, in front of lawmakers in Parliament in London, he referred to the battle-ravaged Mogadishu as a “thriving capital city.”

Here was his full statement: “The whole house will wish to join me in condemning the atrocity in Mogadishu on Saturday, which claimed at least 281 lives. Those who inflicted this heinous act of terrorism on a thriving capital city achieved nothing but to demonstrate their own wickedness.”

Earlier, he refused to apologize to his colleagues for a flippant comment he had during the Conservative Party conference about dead bodies needing to be cleared to turn the Libyan port city of Sirte into the next Dubai.

To contact the reporter on this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson in London at fjackson@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net, Eddie Buckle, Alex Morales