At least 32 people have been killed and many more wounded in an attack on a popular beach in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, according to officials.
Al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda-linked armed group, claimed responsibility for attack on Lido beach late on Friday via an affiliated radio station.
Security forces rushed to the scene, the Somali National News Agency reported, saying that at least five attackers were shot dead while a sixth blew himself up on the spot. The explosion went off while residents were on the beach.
“More than 32 civilians died in this attack, and about 63 others were wounded, some of them critically,” police spokesman Abdifatah Adan Hassan told reporters, increasing the initial death toll from seven.
A witness told The Associated Press news agency in a phone call that he saw an attacker wearing an explosive vest moments before the man “blew himself up next to the beach-view hotel”. Mohamud Moalim also said some of his friends who were with him at the hotel were killed and others were wounded.
In a post on X, former Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire sent his “deepest condolences to the families, relatives and friends” of those killed.
“The fact that the terrorist attack coincides with this night when the beach is the most congested shows the hostility of the terrorists to the Somali people.”
Lido beach, a popular area in Mogadishu, is bustling on Friday nights as Somalis enjoy their weekend. The area has in the past been targeted by al-Shabab fighters.
Al-Shabab has been fighting to topple the fragile central government in Mogadishu for more than 17 years, carrying out numerous bombings and other attacks in the capital and other parts of the country.
The government depends on the support of foreign troops to stay in power. It has also joined forces with local armed groups to fight the group in a campaign supported by an African Union force and United States air raids.
But the offensive has suffered setbacks, with al-Shabab earlier this year claiming it had taken multiple locations in the centre of the country.
In June, Somalia called for the slowing down of the withdrawal of an African peacekeeping mission, known as ATMIS, which is expected to pull out by December 31.
