The minister said that “the Ministry of Health has so far confirmed the killing of 21 and wounding 117” in the attack on the Al Hayat Hotel in the Somali capital, which began on Friday night (19).
The previous poll had 13 dead.
Families of those missing in the attack, Sunday, waited for news from their loved ones. “My brother was in the hotel the last time we heard about him, but his phone is switched off and we don’t know what to expect,” businessman Mukhtar Adan told AFP.
Hours before, the security forces announced that they had put an end to the attack in the early hours of Sunday morning with the killing of all the invaders.
AFP journalists confirmed that rescue teams were trying to find possible survivors under the rubble on Sunday.
The hotel, frequented by government officials, was badly damaged during the clash between Islamists and security forces, and parts of it collapsed.
This is the most serious attack in Mogadishu since May, during the election of the new Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, and highlights the danger posed by the Islamist insurgency 15 years ago.
Somalia’s allies, particularly the US, UK and Turkey, as well as the United Nations, condemned the attack.
The European Union delegation in Somalia offered its condolences for the victims.
This attack “comes at a critical moment” for the newly appointed federal government and aims to increase “pressure on an already tense situation” after the elections, he added in a note from the office of the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell.
– Children in shock –
Elements of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabab movement began the attack on Friday evening, storming the popular Hayat Hotel with guns and bombs, where they remained holed up for about 30 hours.
Police chief Abdi Hassan Mohamed Hajjar told media on Sunday that security forces had rescued “106 people, including women and children” during the Islamist attack, which ended around midnight.
Shortly before the siege ended, witness Salah Ali, who was watching from the balcony of another building, said that security forces were attacking with “heavy weapons”.
Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack via the relevant media. The group’s spokesman, Abdelaziz Abu Musab, confirmed in statements to Al-Andalus Radio that its forces “caused a large number of casualties.”
A woman named Hayat Ali said that security forces found 3 children, ages 4 and 7, hiding in shock in a hotel bathroom, after which they were able to reunite them with their families.
The attack came after the United States announced on Wednesday that 13 al-Shabab fighters had been killed in an air strike near Tidan, 300 km north of Mogadishu and close to the Ethiopian border.
President Joe Biden decided to resume the US military presence in Somalia in May, reversing the decision of his predecessor, Donald Trump.
Al-Shabaab fighters were expelled from Mogadishu in 2011 by an African Union force, but they still control large swathes of territory and are capable of carrying out deadly actions against civilian and military targets.
President Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud said last month that he would not be able to defeat the militiamen by resorting exclusively to military force, but made clear that it was not yet time to confront negotiations.
