A new drama. On Sunday, a hotel in the town of Kismayo, in southern Somalia, was the target of an attack which lasted more than six hours. Nine people were killed and 47 injured during this assault led by radical Al-Shabaab Islamists. This large port city is the latest hit by the resurgence of violent actions by Shebab in recent months, which has notably bloodied the capital Mogadishu and the center of the country.
The attack, which began around 12:45 p.m. local time (9:45 a.m. GMT), ended around 7 p.m., after three assailants, present inside the hotel, were shot dead by the security forces of the hotel. State of Jubaland. Jubaland’s Minister of Security, Yusuf Hussein Osman, announced a death toll of nine people and 47 others injured, “including students who were leaving a nearby school at the time of the attack”. “Security forces ended the siege in a timely manner,” he said.
A similar attack in 2019
The action was carried out by four men: a first who carried out a suicide attack, followed by the intrusion of three armed men into the hotel. According to Yusuf Hussein Osman, it started with a suicide bomber “who blew himself up”. Witnesses mentioned a car bomb. “A suicide bomber drove a vehicle to the entrance of the hotel before armed men entered the building. Shooting started inside,” said one of them, named Farhan Hassan. The Shebab claimed responsibility for the attack, claiming to target a hotel where members of the Jubaland administration were meeting.
In July 2019, they carried out a similar attack against local authorities in a hotel in the city, killing at least 26 people and injuring 56. The Islamist group, linked to Al-Qaeda, has been fighting the federal government supported by the international community since 2007. It was driven out of the main cities – including the capital Mogadishu in 2011 – but remains firmly established in large rural areas, especially in the south of the country. Capital of Jubaland located 500 km south of Mogadishu, Kismayo was a stronghold of Shebab, who drew solid income from its port activity, before the city was taken over in 2012 by local militias, supported by Kenyan forces. .
A “total war”
In recent months, the Shebab have redoubled their activity in Somalia, a poor and unstable country in the Horn of Africa, with, in particular, a spectacular assault, lasting around thirty hours, at the end of August, on a hotel in Mogadishu. After this attack, which left at least 21 dead and 117 injured, President Hassan Cheikh Mohamoud promised a “total war” to eliminate the Shebab and called on the population to “stay away” from areas controlled by the Islamists who were to be targeted by future offensives. The security forces and local clan militias have, in particular, launched military operations in the center of the country, which, according to the authorities, have made it possible to regain ground from the Islamist fighters.
The US military also carries out airstrikes. One of them killed, at the beginning of October, Abdullahi Yare, one of the most senior leaders and co-founder of the movement, in the south of the country. A few hours after the announcement of his death by the Somali government, a triple bomb attack against a government building in the town of Beledweyne (center) killed at least 30 people and injured 58 others. In addition to the Shebab insurgency, Somalia is also threatened by an imminent famine, caused by the most serious drought observed for more than forty years. Across the country, 7.8 million people, nearly half of the population, are affected by the drought, of which 213,000 are in serious danger of starvation, according to the UN. Without urgent mobilization, a state of famine could be declared before the end of the year.
Source: 20minutes
I, Ronald Payne, am a journalist and author who dedicated his life to telling the stories that need to be said. I have over 7 years of experience as a reporter and editor, covering everything from politics to business to crime.
