The attack on a hotel in Mogadishu by Shebab Islamist fighters, which lasted 30 hours until Saturday evening, caused the death of at least 21 civilians, according to a new official report given on Sunday.
The assault is the bloodiest in the Somali capital since new President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud took office in June and is putting pressure on the federal government, appointed in early August after months of political instability.
Health Minister Ali Haji Adan “confirmed at this stage (the toll of) 21 dead and 117 injured” in the attack on the Hayat hotel.
On Sunday, the relatives of the missing persons were awaiting news following the attack involving the explosion of a bomb and the shooting of firearms carried out by Al-Shabaab, a group affiliated with Al-Qaeda active for 15 years and which remains a major threat to federal authorities.
The security forces put an end in the night of Saturday to Sunday to the assault launched Friday evening, announcing the death of all the attackers.
Rescuers were trying to find possible survivors among the rubble on Sunday morning, AFP journalists noted, while the hotel’s gated areas were quiet and experts were working to detect possible explosives. .
The hotel suffered heavy damage during the face-off between Al-Shabaab and security forces, with parts of the building collapsing.
“I hope he is alive”
Police Commissioner Abdi Hassan Mohamed Hijar told reporters on Sunday that “106 people, including women and children”, were rescued by security forces during the siege that ended around midnight.
“The victims were mainly affected in the first hours of the attack,” he added.
Shebab spokesman Abdiaziz Abu-Musab told their station, Radio Andalus, on Saturday that the group had “inflicted heavy losses” on security forces.
According to a woman witness, Hayat Ali, three children from the same family, aged between four and seven, were found in a state of shock, hiding in the hotel toilets.
Muktar Adan, a businessman whose brother was at the establishment on Friday evening, told AFP he was waiting for permission to approach the building. “My brother was in the hotel when we last heard from him, but his phone is off now and we don’t know what to expect,” he said.
Said Nurow told AFP he was worried about his friend who was also staying there. ” I hope […] that he is alive”.
The hotel, where many people were staying at the time of the attack, was a popular meeting place for government officials.
Escalation of attacks
According to Samira Gaid, director of the Hiraal Institute think tank in Mogadishu, this “bold attack” is a message to the new government and its foreign allies.
“The complex attack is intended to show that they (Shabab) are still very present,” she told AFP.
Somalia’s allies, including the US, UK and Turkey, as well as the UN, have strongly condemned the assault.
“We send our sincere condolences to the families who lost loved ones, wish a full recovery to the injured and congratulate the Somali security forces,” responded the US State Department.
The European Union Delegation to Somalia offered its condolences to the victims and their relatives and reaffirmed on Twitter its support for the Somali government “in its objective to ensure peace and stability” in the country.
This attack “came at a critical moment” for the newly appointed federal government and “clearly aims” to “increase the pressure on an already tense situation” after the elections, added in a press release the services of the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell.
Al-Shabaab were driven out of Somalia’s main cities, including Mogadishu in 2011, but remain entrenched in large rural areas. In recent months, they have intensified their attacks.
On Wednesday, the American army announced that it had killed in an airstrike 13 Shebab militiamen who were attacking soldiers of the Somali regular forces in a remote area of this country in the Horn of Africa.
In May, US President Joe Biden decided to re-establish a military presence in Somalia to fight the Shebab there, approving a request from the Pentagon which deemed the rotation system decided by his predecessor Donald Trump at the end of his term too risky and ineffective. mandate.
President Mohamoud said last month that a military approach was insufficient to end the Al-Shabaab insurgency.
In early August, its Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre announced the appointment of a former Shebab leader, who became a politician, to the post of Minister of Religious Affairs. Muktar Robow, alias Abu Mansour, publicly defected in August 2017 from the movement he helped found.