Norwegian citizens were killed in an attack by radical Islamist Shebab on a hotel in Mogadishu this weekend, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry said on Monday (22 August).
The attack on the Hayat Hotel, which started Friday night and ended Saturday night after security forces intervened, left at least 21 dead and 117 injured, according to a preliminary report by the Ministry of Somali Health on Sunday afternoon.
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Without giving a specific number, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry said on Monday that it had “received information that Norwegian citizens were killed in the terrorist attack on the Hayat Hotel”. “We are also trying to find out if any Norwegian citizens may have been injured,” ministry spokeswoman Ragnhild Simenstad told AFP, stressing that local conditions made any confirmation difficult. Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang (VG), quoting the management of Oslo’s largest mosque, reported that two Norwegians in their 50s had been killed in an operation by radical Islamists Shebab, a group with ties to al-Qaeda fighting against the Somali government for 15 years.
This attack is the bloodiest since President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud was elected in mid-May and the government took office in early August. The Shebab were expelled from the main cities of this Horn of Africa country, including Mogadishu, in 2011, but remain based in large rural areas and remain a major threat to the authorities.
SEE ALSO – Somalia: 21 civilians killed in a Shebab attack on a hotel in Mogadishu