At least 32 people were killed and more than 60 others wounded, some critically, in a suicide bombing and gun attack on Lido Beach in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital.
According to officials, the attack occurred late on Friday, targeting the popular seaside spot frequented by locals on weekends. Al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda-linked armed group, claimed responsibility for the assault via an affiliated radio station.
Witnesses described scenes of chaos and panic. Mohamud Moalim, speaking to The Associated Press, recounted seeing an attacker wearing an explosive vest moments before the explosion. “He blew himself up next to the Beach View Hotel,” Moalim said, noting that some of his friends were killed and others wounded in the attack.
The attack began when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive at the entrance of the Beach View Hotel. Several other attackers attempted to storm the hotel and opened fire on people on the beach, where many residents were walking or sitting, witnesses and police reported.
“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, updating the initial death toll from seven.
Security forces killed all the attackers at the scene and captured another one driving a car filled with explosives. One soldier was killed, and another was injured in the operation, Hassan added.
“Everybody was panicked, and it was hard to know what was happening because the shooting started soon after the blast,” another witness, Abdilatif Ali, told AFP. “I saw many people strewn on the ground, some dead and others wounded.”
Somalia’s federal government condemned the attack, with state media reporting on Saturday. Former Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire expressed his “deepest condolences to the families, relatives, and friends” of those killed in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“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,” Khaire stated.
The nationality and identity of the affected individuals, along with any Kenyan casualties, have not yet been officially confirmed.
