On 23 October 2022, al-Shabaab killed at least eight people in a bombing and shooting attack at a hotel in Kismayo, Somalia.^[1][2]

Background

Somali Islamist group al-Shabaab began an insurgency in 2006, in an attempt to overthrow the Somali government and impose an extreme version of Sharia.^[2] Al-Shabaab often use bombs and guns to attack military and civilian targets, including many hotels.^[1][2] These include a suicide car bombing and mass shooting at the Asasey Hotel in Kismayo in 2019, in which they killed 26 people.^[2]

Attack

At 12:45 pm on 23 October 2022, a suicide car bomber rammed the entrance gate of the Tawakal Hotel in Kismayo, a port city in Jubaland, in the far south of Somalia.^[1][2] Three al-Shabaab gunmen continued the attack inside the hotel for fifteen hours until they were shot dead by security forces.^[2][3] Later the same day, al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack.^[1][2]A doctor at Kismayo Hospital said that eight people were killed, including four security personnel, and that 41 people were wounded.^[1] Government officials later reported that nine civilians had been killed and 47 had been wounded, while Al-Shabaab claimed that they had killed 27 and injured 53.^[3]