Somali official raises death toll in Mogadishu hotel attack to 13

Security commander says most civilians who were at hotel when jihadist group al-Shabaab launched assault have been rescued

By AFP 20 August 2022, 3:19 pm

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Security officers patrol near the the site of explosions in Mogadishu, Somalia, on August 20, 2022. (Hassan Ali Elmi/AFP)

MOGADISHU, Somalia — The number of people killed in an hours-long attack by jihadist militants on a hotel in the Somali capital Mogadishu has risen to 13, a security commander said on Saturday.

“We are getting information about five more victims confirmed dead and that makes 13 the overall number of civilians killed by the terrorists,” Mohamed Abdikadir told AFP.

Police officer Ibrahim Duale also confirmed that more than 10 people had been killed but said police would release updated information once the siege at the Hayat Hotel was over.

He said most of the civilians who were in the hotel at the time of the gun and bomb assault launched by Al-Shabaab fighters on Friday evening had been rescued.

“The security forces will announce any moment that the siege is over, it took a long time because of the complexity of the rescue mission,” Duale told AFP.

The director of Mogadishu’s main trauma hospital, Dr. Mohamed Abdirahman Jama, said the facility was treating at least 40 people wounded in the hotel attack and a separate mortar strike on another area of the capital.