Suspected militants attacked a town 17 Kilometres from the capital Mogadishu armed with AK47 rifles and killed at least 10 people.
While no one has yet taken responsibility for the attack, Somali security official Mohamed Hassan blamed the home-grown militant group al-Shabaab.
Hassan and a local government official said at least 10 people had died, many of them women street-sweepers.
A witness described that the gunmen seemed to fire randomly into the street.
“It suddenly turned into carnage; there were pools of blood everywhere,” Mohamed Adam said.
Many of the victims were participating in a government programme that allows Somali women to work as street cleaners in exchange for food from local authorities.