At least 12 killed in an Al Shabab attack on a hotel in Somalia

At least 12 people have died in an attack recorded tonight against a hotel in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
20 August 2022 Saturday 02:30
46 Reads
At least 12 killed in an Al Shabab attack on a hotel in Somalia

At least 12 people have died in an attack recorded tonight against a hotel in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. The attack, the most violent since the election of the new Somali president, Hassan Sheikh, in May, has been claimed by the jihadist group Al Shabab, linked to Al Qaeda.

The assailants broke into the Hayat hotel several detonating explosive devices. A shootout then broke out between the terrorists who barricaded themselves in the building and the security forces. In the early hours of this Saturday there were still shots although the exact number of victims is unknown.

A Somali police spokesman has pointed out that the first explosion was caused by a suicide bomber and that another one took place later, taking the lives of several people who had come to help the first victims.

"Security forces rescued dozens of civilians, including children, who were trapped in the building," a military spokesman said.

Abdiaziz Abu-Musab, one of the leaders of Al Shabab, has recounted in statements sent to Radio Andalus that his forces "still control" the building and have "inflicted many casualties" on the security forces.

The latest information confirms that a group of assailants remains hidden in the hotel, maintaining an intense exchange of shots that can be heard from outside the building.

The jihadist group Al Shabab has spread terror beyond Somalia. Taking advantage of the instability in Ethiopia, immersed in several conflicts in the north and south of the country, several cells have crossed the border to carry out unprecedented attacks in recent weeks.

The incursions of the boys (the group's name in Arabic) pose a significant danger to the security of the region because it would extend their dominance in a nation already heavily ravaged by violence, and to other countries such as Kenya and even Uganda to the West.

On August 15, a joint air strike by the United States Military Command in Africa (AFRICOM) with the Somali Army killed 13 fighters of the terrorist group Al Shabab in central Somalia. According to local media, this was the fourth air attack by US troops against the armed group on Somali soil so far this month.

Al Shabab, a group that joined the Al Qaeda network in 2012, often perpetrates terrorist attacks in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and other parts of the country to overthrow the central government and establish by force a Wahhabi-style Islamic State (ultraconservative ). Somalia has been experiencing an armed conflict since the 1991 overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, which left the country without an effective government and at the mercy of warlords and Islamist militias.

Organizations such as Human Rights Watch (HRW) demand that the US prioritize the protection of Somali civilians during its military operations, since in the past its actions have caused "considerable loss of civilian life in the country (...) , including in attacks that were apparent violations of the laws of war".