An employee of the World Health Organization (WHO) was killed in the attack on a hotel in the Somali capital Mogadishu by radical Shebab Islamists on Friday night, deplored on Sunday Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO.
On Friday night, a commando of seven Islamist fighters stormed the Pearl Beach hotel on the Mogadishu waterfront. According to Somali police, six civilians were killed and ten wounded during the six-hour siege. Three police officers were also killed in the attack.
“I am heartbroken after the loss of a WHO employee in the recent attack in Mogadishu,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote in a tweet, concluding: “We condemn all attacks against civilians and aid workers.”
The attack claimed by Shebab
Al-Shabaab, which claimed responsibility for the attack by saying it targeted a location frequented by the authorities, has waged an insurgency against the federal government with the support of the international community for more than fifteen years, often attacking hotels that usually house high-ranking officials. Somalis and foreigners.
Driven from the country’s major cities in 2011-2012, they remain firmly established in vast rural areas. Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud declared “total war” against them and launched a military offensive against them in September, notably with the support of US airstrikes. But Shebab continues to carry out bloody retaliatory attacks, underscoring its ability to strike at the heart of Somali cities and military installations.
In a report to the UN Security Council in February, the organization’s secretary general, Antonio Guterres, claimed that 2022 had been the deadliest year for civilians in Somalia since 2017, largely due to Shebab attacks.
Source: BFM TV
