At least nine people were killed and 47 wounded in an attack carried out this Sunday by radical Islamists from Al-Shabaab on a hotel in the city of Kismayo, in southern Somalia.
This large port city is the latest to be hit by the upsurge in Shebab’s violent actions in recent months, which has notably bloodied the capital Mogadishu and the center of the country.
The attack, which began around 12:45 pm, ended around 7:00 pm after three attackers inside the hotel were shot dead by Jubaland state security forces.
Several attacks this year
The attack was carried out by four men: the first one who carried out a suicide attack, followed by the break-in of three armed men in the hotel. According to Yusuf Hussein Osman, the attack began with a suicide bomber “who blew himself up”.
Witnesses mentioned a car bomb. “A suicide bomber drove a vehicle to the hotel entrance before gunmen entered the building. Shooting started inside,” said one of them, named Farhan Hassan.
The Shebab claimed responsibility for the attack and claimed to have targeted a hotel where members of the Jubaland administration were meeting. In July 2019, they carried out a similar attack on local authorities at a hotel in the city, killing at least 26 people and injuring 56.
The al-Qaeda-linked Islamist group has been fighting the federal government supported by the international community since 2007. It was expelled from major cities, including the capital Mogadishu, in 2011, but remains firmly established in large rural areas, particularly in the south of the country.
The capital of Jubaland, located 500 kilometers south of Mogadishu, Kismayo was a stronghold of Shebab, which earned a solid income from its port activity before local militias backed by Kenyan forces seized the city in 2012.
Source: BFM TV
