Somalia: an attack by Shebabs in Mogadishu in a context of "total war"
A view of the presidential palace in Mogadishu in 2021, not far from the site of the Shebab attack (Illustration image).
© FEISAL OMAR / REUTERS
Text by: RFI Follow
3 mins
In Somalia, Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shebab jihadists carried out a new attack on Sunday evening in the heart of the capital, Mogadishu, attacking a hotel where many officials are staying.
Several ministers were thus injured.
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"
A group of Al-Shabaab fighters attacked a hotel in Bondhere district this evening [and] security forces are engaged to eliminate them
," national police spokesman Sadik Dudishe said in a statement.
Many civilians and politicians have already been rescued and evacuated from this hotel, the Villa Rose, he added.
The environment minister said in a tweet that he was safe after a "
terrorist explosion targeting
[his]
residence
" at the hotel.
I am saved from a terrorist explosion targeted at my residence, Villa Rays.
الحمد لله.
— Adam Aw Hirsi (@JustAwHirsi) November 27, 2022
The Villa Rose hotel is a popular place for Somali MPs, located in the central safe area of Mogadishu, not far from the office of the country's president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud.
For its part, ATMIS, the new peacekeeping force led by the African Union in Somalia, wrote on Twitter that it "
strongly condemns today's terrorist attack on the Villa Rose hotel.
".
And she “
expresses her solidarity with the government and people of Somalia
”.
Victories from the Somali government
This new attack is the second of this scale targeting a place of power in the Somali capital, while the Somali president has launched
a "
total war
"
against the group since the summer.
Its new military strategy, consisting of relying on clan militias, as well as American military assistance and the African Union, had until then made it possible to regain ground, explains
Léonard Vincent
, of the Africa editorial staff of RFI.
In the Somali public press, the term "
terrorist
" is now replaced by the term
"
renegade
".
Each victorious military operation against
the Shebabs
is praised, with figures and photos, such as the one which liberated the village of el-Dhere on Saturday, November 26, on the border of the states of Hiraan and Middle Shabelle, at the cost of a hundred dead on the side of the shebabs.
About sixty villages have thus changed hands since the summer.
The ministers and the head of state himself are increasing their field trips to the states most concerned.
Hassan Cheikh Mohamoud thus returned Thursday, November 24, for the second time, to the village of Nur Dugle, recently taken over.
“
As long as I am president
, he declared last week,
the government will be determined to eradicate the shebabs from the country”
, promising “
soon
” the release of other sectors.
A television channel was even specially inaugurated on Wednesday, so that the Somali public is properly "
informed about military operations against terrorists
", according to the public channel SNTV.
Radical methods and hard ground to “
hold
”
But this strategy also has its drawbacks.
It is done at the cost of radical methods, in particular towards traders who lose their license if they continue to pay
the forced tax to the shebabs
.
A well-known journalist, Abdalle Ahmed Mumin, is being prosecuted after criticizing the fact that the authorities see
jihadist "
propaganda " everywhere.
And, like this Sunday evening, the jihadists are striving to carry out complex, deadly attacks, in the heart of Mogadishu, near places of power, with the aim of changing the balance of power with the government and its allies.
And then in the countryside, believes Omar Mahmood of the International Crisis Group, “
the most difficult thing is not to regain ground
”, but to “
hold
it ”.
►Also read: In Somalia, the UN denounces the increase in the number of civilian victims of violence resulting from Shebabs
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Somalia
Shebabs
Terrorism
Hassan Sheikh Mohamud