At least 15 army recruits died Tuesday when a suicide bomber attacked a military training camp in Mogadishu, Somalia, an officer said.

The African Union has condemned a bill passed this month by lawmakers in Somalia extending the mandate of President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed by two years. 

A statement Thursday night from the AU's 15-member security body said the bill, which the president signed on April 13, undermined Somalia's "unity and stability" and "nascent democratic and constitutional processes." 

Emergency talks between Somalia's divided political leaders have ended without agreement on how to proceed with elections, a government minister has announced just days before the president's mandate expires.

Somalia announced on Tuesday it was severing diplomatic ties with Kenya, accusing Nairobi of "recurring" interference in its political affairs as Mogadishu prepares long-awaited elections scheduled for early 2021.

The Pentagon said Friday it is pulling most U.S. troops out of Somalia on President Donald Trump's orders, continuing a post-election push by Trump to shrink U.S. involvement in counterterrorism missions abroad.

Without providing details, the Pentagon said in a short statement that "a majority" of U.S. troops and assets in Somalia will be withdrawn in early 2021. There are currently about 700 troops in that Horn of Africa nation, training and advising local forces in an extended fight against the extremist group al-Shabab, an affiliate of al-Qaida.

Somalia's President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed has appointed a new prime minister hours after brokering an agreement with regional leaders for elections next year that abandons a promised one-person, one-vote model.

A suspected car bomb exploded close to a checkpoint near Somalia's parliament in the capital Mogadishu on Wednesday, witnesses and a security official said.

A plume of thick black smoke was seen over the city and witnesses said a number of vehicles were on fire.

The death toll from a massive car bomb in the Somali capital has risen to 81, a government spokesman said Monday, as rescue workers pursued their search for the missing.

Six UN Security Council members on Wednesday blocked a move to include Somali jihadist group Al-Shabaab on a list of organizations such as Al-Qaeda that are under international sanctions, diplomatic sources said.

At least five people were killed and several wounded when a car bomb was detonated Monday outside a hotel in the Somali capital Mogadishu, a security officer and witnesses said.