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Terror in Mogadishu: Al-Shabab Gunmen Storm Upmarket Somali Hotel
Mohamed Gabobe reports from the Somali capital where militants have laid siege to a hotel next to the presidential palace
On Sunday night, Al-Qaeda-affiliated militants from the armed group, Al-Shabab, raided the upscale Villa Rose hotel near Somalia’s presidential palace in the capital Mogadishu, following a series of bomb blasts.
The initial blast occurred at 7:56 pm and was so deafening that it was heard throughout the city. Minutes later the sound of a second explosion echoed over the streets. Thick smoke could be seen billowing from the area of the presidential palace.
Omar Abtidoon, a local bajaj auto rickshaw driver was rushing to get home when the explosion happened. “I was driving my bajaj past the Daljir Dahson (a national monument) which is a stone’s throw from where the bombing occurred”, he told Byline Times. “When bombings happen in Mogadishu, I always rush home before the roads are closed, so I can reach my family’s home. This time I almost didn’t make it,”
The Government’s responded to the attack by flooding the city with troops, prohibiting all movement and preventing journalists from accessing the area of the hotel. Abitdoon witnessed the mobilisation of the military units and the police, including units from the intelligence service.
Repeated blasts and gunfire could be heard through the night and into the early morning when it was confirmed that armed gunmen from the Al-Qaeda-linked militant group, Al-Shabaab, had stormed the hotel and were held up inside laying siege to the hotel. The city was placed under lockdown. Several people were confirmed to have died in the ongoing siege, including a British national of Somali descent identified by local media as Mohamed Sayid Hassan. Hassan had just returned to Somalia from the UK and had been in Mogadishu for only two weeks.
“It’s not good to be out in the city when explosions happen, cause you never when the next will happen or where you’ll be when it happens. It’s just not worth the money” Omar Abitoon explained.
The reality is that the inhabitants of Mogadishu have become used to violence of this magnitude, as the city has endured a protracted state of war for over three decades. Innocent civilians, school children, and members of the diaspora community often pay the price for the conflict with Islamic militants that seems far from ending.
The violence has escalated over the last year. In August, the popular Hayat Hotel was attacked by Islamist militants, and more than 20 people died. In October, two car bomb explosions near a busy intersection killed more than 100.
This new attack on the heart of the administrative centre of Mogadishu is humiliating for the new Government, as the armed gunmen must have passed through multiple checkpoints and security screenings. Various officials escaped from the Villa Rose, with one minister injured.
Because the hotel is close to the buildings of the Somali parliament the sessions slated today for both houses of the federal parliament were postponed.
As the deadly hotel siege in Mogadishu ends its first day, the Al-Shabaab fighters appear to be digging in for a long fight and more lives are likely to be lost. The failure of the Western-backed regime to deal with this crisis is like to embolden the insurgents and increase the chances they will out similar attacks in the near future.