Somalia suicide bomber was German
The worldwide community has strongly condemned a suicide attack on a hotel in the Somali capital of Mogadishu which killed at least 15 people.
The Chinese embassy, located on the top two floors of the hotel, had its offices partially damaged in the attack, which was one of the fiercest in Mogadishu.
“This is really scary – destroying the Jazeera hotel like this means no blast walls can make anyone safe”, said bystander Yusuf Mohammed.
The bomber blew himself up inside a truck filled with explosives.
The attack occurred Sunday when a suicide bomber detonated his auto at the gate of the Jazera Hotel, a six-story luxury hotel which houses the embassies of China, Egypt, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and is frequented by diplomats and foreign visitors.
Jittery soldiers fired several rounds into the air to disperse the crowd which was beginning to gather right after medical personnel transported the wounded to hospitals using ambulances.
Despite the fact that the militants have been pushed out of Mogadishu and other major cities in the African country by government troops, they have continued to wage attacks in Mogadishu in an attempt to overthrow the government in Somalia.
The attack “reminds us that terrorist groups like al-Shabab offer nothing but death and destruction and have to be stopped”, President Barack Obama said on Monday in neighbouring Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. Obama had noted al-Shabaab as a threat earlier in the trip.
Deployed to Somalia since 2007, AMISOM has helped push back Shebab across much of the country’s south, retaking towns and territory the group had held for years.
“Despite the very real progress Somalia has achieved in recent years, this attack is yet another reminder of the unconscionable atrocities that terrorist groups continue to perpetrate against the people of Somalia”, the statement read, adding that the United States remains steadfast in its commitment to work with Somalia to bring an end to such acts of terrorism.
Brazil also condemned the deadly attack and expressed solidarity with the families of the victims, according to a foreign ministry statement.
