An explosives Al-Shabab suicide bomber into the gate of a hotel and detonated today in the centre of Somalia’s port city of Kismayo, and gunfire was heard immediately afterwards, a police officer and a resident told Somali Times.
”The security forces were dealing with a Al-Shabab terrorist at the hotel,” said Somali officials.
Abdiasis Abu Musab Al-Shabab’s military operation spokesperson, said the group was behind the attack, and intended to strike Jubaland region’s administrators who work from the hotel.
Kismayo is the commercial capital of Jubaland, a region of southern Somalia still partly controlled by Al-Shabab.
Al Shabab was driven out of Kismayo in 2012. The city’s port had been a major source of revenue for the group from taxes, charcoal exports and levies on arms and other illegal imports. In 2019, a similar attack at another hotel in Kismayo killed at least 26 people.