Somalia’s prime minister called for unity and assured that the government would assume its responsibilities, after the bloody attack carried out last weekend by radical Islamists Al-Shabaab against a hotel in Mogadishu, which left at least 21 dead and 117 wounded.
“There will be responsibilities within the government, no one within the government will escape [sa] responsibility. Anyone who has neglected the responsibility given to him will be held accountable,” Hamza Abdi Barre said on Sunday evening after visiting those injured in the attack at a hospital in Mogadishu.
“There is only one choice here: either we allow the shebabs – the children of hell – to live, or we live. We cannot live together,” he said.
He called on “the people of Somalia to unite to fight against the enemy and […] to break free so that what happened there will never happen again”.
The radical Islamists of Shebab, a group linked to al-Qaeda which has been fighting the Somali government for 15 years, launched a major attack on Friday evening on the Hayat hotel in the capital Mogadishu, which ended on the night of Saturday to Sunday after an intervention by security forces.
The Minister of Health spoke on Sunday afternoon of a balance sheet “at this stage” of 21 dead and 117 injured. According to police commissioner AbdiHassan Mohamed Hijar, “106 people, including women and children”, were rescued by the security forces.
Norwegians killed
Without providing a precise assessment, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for its part indicated on Monday that it had received “information according to which Norwegian citizens were killed in the terrorist attack against the Hayat hotel”.
Quoting the management of Oslo’s biggest mosque, the Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang reports for its part that two Norwegians were killed in this attack. This is the bloodiest since the mid-May election of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud and the inauguration of the government in early August.
On Monday, security agents searched the rubble again for explosives and possible bodies. The building remained cordoned off, but nearby roads reopened and traffic returned to normal in the capital.
“The only difference between this attack and previous ones is the duration of the siege and the time it took security forces to contain the situation,” said Samira Gaid, chief executive of Mogadishu-based think tank Hiraal Institute. .
Recent changes at the top of the state may have affected the security forces, she added, stressing that security chiefs “are supposed to be changed every time a new administration comes in”.
Thirty hour assault
The Shebabs were driven out of the main cities of this Horn of Africa country, including Mogadishu, in 2011, but remain established in large rural areas and remain a major threat to the authorities.
One of the founders and former commander of the Shebab movement, now Minister of Religious Affairs, Muktar Robow, alias Abu Mansour, condemned the attack and called on the fighters to leave Shebab.
“Those who send you to do this, I know many. They have their children at the University of Mogadishu and they would not send them to do this job. So I call on you to beware, to repent, to leave them and to return to your society, because there are still chances” for you, he continued.
Friday evening, the shebabs took over the Hayat hotel, a popular meeting place for government officials and crowded on this Muslim day of rest, detonating bombs and firing guns.
Security forces ended the assault around midnight Saturday, announcing the death of all the attackers. During the thirty hours that the attack lasted, the establishment suffered heavy damage. Parts of the building collapsed.
Somalia’s allies, including the United States, United Kingdom and Turkey, as well as the United Nations, strongly condemned the attack.
The European Union delegation in the country reaffirmed its support for the Somali government “in its objective of ensuring peace and stability”.