Explosions and sporadic gunshots rang out on the morning of Friday March 15 in the SYL hotel in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, several hours after an attack by Al-Shabaab fighters against the establishment located near the presidential palace, noted a correspondent from Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The police announced the end of the attack, specifying that “all the armed terrorists have been killed and the situation has returned to normal, the security forces are carrying out checks and investigations”. Abdirahim Yusuf, a police officer, spoke out nearly thirteen hours after the hotel attack began.
It is located near the ultra-secure Villa Somalia compound, a fortified complex housing the Somali presidency and prime minister’s offices. The results of this assault are not immediately known. Witnesses said they heard heavy gunfire.
On Thursday, Somalia’s president held a “strategic meeting” with defense officials to plan the reconquest of lost territories, the national Sonna news agency reported. The government of President Hassan Cheikh Mohamoud launched a vast offensive in August 2023, supported by the American army and the African Union force present in the country (Atmis), which, after allowing the reconquest of territories in central Somalia, is currently at a standstill.
Several bloody attacks
Al-Shabaab has been fighting the Somali federal government, supported by the international community, for more than sixteen years. These Al-Qaeda-linked rebels controlled the capital until 2011, when they were driven out by African Union troops. Chabab nevertheless remains established in vast rural areas of the center and south of the country, from where they regularly carry out attacks against security, political and civilian targets.
Through their bloody attacks, they show their ability to strike at the heart of cities and military installations in this Horn of Africa country of 17 million inhabitants. In fact, the hotel had already been targeted several times since 2015 by Chabab. During the latest attack, in December 2019, five people, three civilians and two members of the security forces, were killed.
In August 2020, Chabab launched a large-scale attack against the Elite, another hotel on Lido beach, killing ten civilians and a police officer. It took four hours for security forces to regain control of the establishment. In June 2023, six civilians and three police officers were killed in the attack on a hotel in Mogadishu by a Chabab commando. They have been considered a terrorist group by Washington since 2008.
