On Sunday, nine civilians were killed in an attack on a hotel in the heart of Kismayo, a port city in southern Somalia, before security forces shot and killed the attackers.
According to Yussuf Hussein Dhumal, the security minister for Jubaland, security personnel shot and killed three of the terrorists, and a fourth was killed in the bomb detonation.
“In the explosion, nine people including students and civilians were killed and 47 others were injured, some of them seriously,” Dhumal said.
“The hotel where the explosion happened was near a school so many students were injured.”
The hotel’s gate was hit by a vehicle carrying explosives, and the al-Shabab armed organisation then claimed responsibility for the incident.
The port city is the most recent to be attacked as a result of a recent uptick in brutal attacks by the al-Qaeda-affiliated group, which primarily targeted the capital Mogadishu and central Somalia.
The attack on Sunday started at 12:45 p.m. when a car carrying explosives hit Hotel Tawakal’s front door.
“This is not a government target,” said police officer Abdullahi Ismail. “It is just an ordinary, civilian-frequented hotel.”
Al-military Shabab’s operation spokesperson, Abdiasis Abu Musab, claimed that the group wanted to target the hotel-based officials of the Jubbaland region.
The commercial center of Jubbaland, which is in southern Somalia and is still in part under al-Shabab control after being driven out of the city center in 2012, is Kismayo.
African Union troops expelled the armed group from Mogadishu in 2011. It still has authority over large areas of the countryside, nevertheless.
Taxes, charcoal exports, levies on weapons imports, and other fees from the city’s port had been a significant source of income for the gang.
Al-Shabab frequently strikes military and civilian targets while attempting to overthrow the government for more than 15 years.