MOGADISHU (Reuters) – At least 37 civilians were killed and 212 wounded in a blast at a popular beachside restaurant in Somalia’s capital late on Friday, the health minister said, in an attack the government blamed on Islamist militant group al Shabaab.
Ali Haji told a news conference that 11 of those injured in the attack in Mogadishu were in critical condition.
It was the deadliest attack in the Horn of Africa nation since two car bombs exploded near a busy market intersection in October 2022, killing at least 100 people and wounding 300 others.
In addition to the civilians killed at the beach restaurant, police spokesman Abdel Fattah Aden said a soldier was killed during the attack.
Aden said one of the attackers blew himself up while security forces killed three others. He added that one of the attackers was captured alive.
Al-Shabaab, which is linked to al-Qaeda, did not immediately claim responsibility for the attack, although it has claimed responsibility for similar attacks in the past, including the car bomb attack in 2022.
Hassan Farah, a survivor, described the shock he felt when the explosion shattered a peaceful evening.
“I was in the restaurant drinking coffee and talking with friends when I saw a huge man running, and in one second there was something like lightning and a huge explosion,” he told Reuters.
“We were covered in smoke. Inside and outside the restaurant, many people were lying on the ground while others were bleeding and crying.”
On Saturday morning, the beach was littered with sandals and shoes left behind by people fleeing the scene.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre met with security agencies after the attack and made plans to enhance security in the city, the president’s office said in a post on its website.
The post read: “The government is determined to eliminate terrorists. Terrorists want to terrorize civilians. Let civilians report terrorists hiding among them.”
Somali government officials often use the word terrorist to refer to al-Shabaab, without naming the group.
Al-Shabaab has controlled a large swath of Somalia, but the government has repelled its counterattacks since 2022. However, the militants are still capable of launching major attacks on government, commercial and military targets.
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