15 killed in al-Shabaab attack on Somali hotel
51 wounded as gunfire, bombs rock Mogadishu
ISLAMIST militants rammed a car bomb into the gate of a hotel in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, yesterday and stormed inside, killing at least 15 people. Gunfire rang out as fighters entered the Dayah Hotel, which is popular with politicians, and a second blast shook the area shortly afterwards, injuring several journalists and others nearby.
Police spokesman Colonel Abdiqadir Hussein said security forces had eventually managed to secure the building.
Dr Duniye Mohamed, a doctor at the Madina Hospital, said some of the people who had been taken there were seriously wounded.
Security Minister Abdirizak Umar said: “The preliminary casualty figure is 15 people dead including four security force members and 11 civilians; 51 others were wounded in the two blasts at the hotel.”
Pictures showed a huge flame immediately after the blast.
Several cars and buildings were destroyed by the explosion.
Islamist group al-Shabaab, which until 2011 controlled much of Somalia including Mogadishu, claimed responsibility.
The insurgents often launch bomb and gun attacks in the capital in their quest to topple the Western-backed government and impose their strict interpretation of Islamic law on the nation.
The al-Shabaab group claimed responsibility in a statement distributed on its Telegram messaging account.
“The mujahideen fighters have attacked a hotel and have managed to enter the hotel after detonating a car loaded with explosives,” it said.
Al-Shabaab regularly stages deadly attacks on state, military and civilian targets in the capital and elsewhere in the war-torn country.
The hotel attack is the deadliest so far in Somalia this year and comes as the country is in the midst of a drawn-out election process to choose a new government.
Last month, more than 20 people were killed when a truck laden with explosives was detonated near a military base close to the Mogadishu port.
Somalia has not had an effective central government since the 1991 overthrow of president Siad Barre’s military regime, which ushered in decades of anarchy and conflict in a country deeply divided along clan lines. The clan rivalries and lawlessness provided fertile ground for al-Shabaab to take hold and seize territory, frustrating efforts to set up a central administration.
After a series of transitional governments were formed abroad, a previous parliament was chosen by 135 clan elders and set up in Mogadishu in 2012.
Somalis were promised a one-person, one-vote election last year.
But political infighting and ongoing insecurity due to the presence of al-Shabaab meant Somalis were handed a limited election, in which 14 025 specially picked delegates voted for 275 parliamentary seats distributed according to clan.
A further 72 seats in a new upper house were shared out according to region.
The newly elected legislators will soon vote for a new president.
However, a date has not been set for the election, which has been delayed numerous times.
Last year’s process is seen as taking the country a step closer to a universal suffrage election now planned for 2020.