An al-Shabab suicide bomber and gunmen attacked a busy beach in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, killing 32 people and wounding many others, police said on Saturday, in one of the deadliest attacks in several months.
Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists have been waging an insurgency against the internationally backed federal government for more than 17 years and have previously targeted the Lido beach area popular with businessmen and officials.
Unconfirmed videos shared online shortly after the attack showed people scattered in the street, and several clips showed bloodied bodies lying on the beach.
“More than 32 civilians were killed and around 63 others were injured in the attack, some of them seriously,” police spokesman Abdifatah Aden Hassan told reporters during a press conference.
“The targeting and explosions that killed 32 members of the civilian population mean that these rebels are not only targeting government centers, soldiers and officials,” he said, using the term used by Somali authorities for al-Shabab.
The attack, which al-Shabab claimed responsibility for in a post on a pro-Shabab website, began late Friday when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives and gunmen stormed the area, police and witnesses told AFP.
Officer Mohammed Omar told AFP they “opened fire indiscriminately at civilians”.
He said security forces had ended the attack and killed five gunmen, while a sixth member of the group “blew himself up on the beach”.
Witnesses said many people were at the popular spot at the time of the blast, and added that gunmen then stormed the area.
– Lido Beach Attacks –
“Everyone was panicked and it was hard to know what was happening,” witness Abdilatif Ali told AFP, because gunfire started immediately after the explosion.
He said people attempted to hide or run away on the ground.
“I saw many people lying on the ground, some of them were dead and others were injured,” he said.
Ahmed Yare watched the attack unfold from a nearby hotel.
“I saw injured people on the beach. People were screaming in panic and it was hard to make out who was dead and who was still alive,” he told AFP.
Al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for numerous bombings and attacks in Mogadishu and other parts of the country, where the government is waging an offensive against Islamist militants.
The Lido area has been the target of attacks before, including a six-hour siege by al-Shabab on a beachside hotel in 2023 that left six civilians dead and 10 injured.
Last month, five people were killed in a powerful car bomb blast at a cafe in the capital.
In March, militants killed three people and wounded 27 in an hours-long siege on another hotel in Mogadishu, bringing a relative lull in the fighting.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)