(Mogadishu) At least 19 civilians were killed overnight from Friday to Saturday by radical Al-Shabaab Islamists in central Somalia, in a new deadly attack two weeks after a spectacular and bloody assault on a hotel in Mogadishu.
Posted at 4:42 p.m.
According to clan leaders and local officials interviewed by AFP, the Shebab stopped at least eight vehicles – passenger minibuses and trucks – traveling on a road between the towns of Beledweyne and Maxaas, which they grouped together and then burned after killing the passengers, near the village of Afar-Irdood.
“The terrorists massacred innocent civilians traveling […] last night. We do not have the exact number of victims, but 19 corpses were collected. The attackers abducted several other people whose fate remains unknown,” said Abdulahi Hared, a chieftain from Beledweyne.
According to the governor of the Hiiraan region where the attack occurred, the Al-Shabaab stopped both vehicles coming from Beledweyne and others going there.
“They massacred innocent civilians after intercepting the vehicles […] The corpses are still being picked up, including women and children. They could be more than 20,” Ali Jeyte told reporters.
“They set fire to the vehicles (..) after executing them. This is a horrific attack that has never happened in our region. They were innocent civilians who did nothing to deserve this,” said Mohamed Abdirahman, another local clan leader.
Reprisals
According to these sources, this attack was carried out in retaliation for the support of local militiamen in the fight against Shebab.
The latter said in a statement that they had targeted sub-clan fighters, who recently helped government forces fight them, saying they had “killed 20 militiamen and those transporting equipment for them” and destroyed “eight of their vehicles.
At the end of August, security forces and local fighters recaptured several villages in this region from Shebab.
A group affiliated with Al-Qaeda, the Shebab have been leading an insurgency against the federal government since 2007, supported by the international community. They were driven out of the main cities of the country, including Mogadishu in 2011, but remain entrenched in large rural areas and remain a major threat to the authorities.
The president of the federated state of Hirshabelle, Ali Gudlawe, in which the attack took place, gave his condolences to the relatives of the victims, promising in a press release that “cleansing operations (against Shebab) will continue”. .
His Jubaland state counterpart, Ahmed Madobe, called on Somalis to “not be discouraged” and “unite to fight and liberate (the) country”.
“Total War”
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud, elected on May 15, promised on August 23 “total war” to eliminate the Shebab, a few days after a bloody attack on a hotel in Mogadishu, the Hayat hotel.
At least 21 people were killed and 117 injured in this spectacular assault, which lasted around 30 hours.
Somalia’s allies, including the United States, United Kingdom and Turkey, as well as the United Nations, strongly condemned the attack.
This attack took place “at a critical moment” for the federal government which took office at the beginning of August and “is clearly aimed” at “increasing the pressure on an already tense situation” after the elections, had estimated the diplomacy of the EU.
The day after the election of Hassan Cheikh Mohamoud, US President Joe Biden announced that he was restoring a military presence in Somalia to fight the Shebab there, approving a request from the Pentagon which considered the rotation system decided by his president to be too risky and ineffective. predecessor Donald Trump at the end of his term.