(Mogadishu) At least 37 people were killed and many others injured in a suicide attack by the radical Islamist group Shebab, followed by gunmen shooting, Friday evening on a popular beach in the Somali capital Mogadishu, according to a new report from the authorities Saturday.
The attack, claimed by this group linked to Al-Qaeda via a message posted on a pro-Shebab site, is one of the deadliest in recent months in Somalia.
“The total number of people killed is 37,” Health Minister Ali Haji Adam said in a statement Saturday evening. A previous report put the death toll at 32.
Eleven people are in intensive care, 64 are hospitalized with injuries while 137 people with minor injuries were able to leave hospital after treatment, he said.
According to police and witnesses, a suicide bomber blew himself up on Lido beach, popular with businessmen and civil servants, on Friday evening. Attackers then opened fire on the beach.
PHOTO FEISAL OMAR, REUTERS
An ambulance transports the body of a woman killed in the attack.
The upscale neighborhood, with its chic hotels and restaurants, has been the target of attacks in the past.
Survivors said that after the suicide bomber detonated, men opened fire on the beach, trying to “kill everyone they could.”
“The ruthless terrorists killed civilians at random,” police officer Mohamed Omar told AFP on Saturday, adding that Somali security forces killed five Shebab members.
The attackers were described as “Kharijites”, a term used by Somali authorities to refer to members of the group.
PHOTO HASSAN ALI ELMI, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A Somali policeman patrols the scene of the attack.
Hawo Mohamed, who lives near the scene of the attack, said at least seven of his acquaintances were killed in the attack.
“There is blood and body parts scattered around the scene,” he told AFP.
Hospitals have launched appeals for blood donations to treat the many injured, according to local media.
Met in a line of volunteers, Mahad Abdiaziz Ibrahim told AFP that he had come because it was “the best thing” he could do. “I am giving blood to help those who desperately need it,” he said.
” Panic ”
A witness, Ahmed Yare, said the attack started from a hotel.
“I saw injured people near the beach, people were screaming in panic and it was difficult to know who was dead and who was not,” he told AFP.
Other witnesses confirmed that many people were on the beach when the explosion occurred.
“Everyone panicked and it was difficult to know what was happening because the shooting started shortly after the explosion,” witness Abdilatif Ali told AFP.
President Hassan Cheikh Mohamoud said on X that he would call an emergency meeting with the prime minister and “senior security officials to remedy the situation.”
Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre called the attack “a barbaric atrocity fundamentally contrary to the values of our religion and culture.”
The chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, described the attack on X as “horrible” and “merciless”. The United Nations in Somalia, for its part, condemned the attack as “abject”.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “condemned” the attack in a statement on Saturday, saying he was “saddened” that Somalis “continue to be victims of such heinous acts of terrorism” and reaffirming the United Nations’ support for the government.
In mid-July, nine people were killed and twenty others injured in Mogadishu in the explosion of a car bomb in front of a crowded cafe during the broadcast of the Euro 2024 final, according to a report from security sources.
The Shebab have carried out numerous bombings and other attacks in the past in Mogadishu and several regions of the volatile Horn of Africa country.
Although they were driven out of the capital by African Union forces in 2011, the rebels are still present in rural areas.
Somalia’s president has vowed an “all-out” war against the jihadists. The army has joined forces with local clan militias in a military campaign backed by an AU force and US strikes. The offensive has suffered setbacks, however.