Norwegian citizens were killed in the attack perpetrated this weekend by radical Islamists Shebab against a hotel in Mogadishu, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry said on Monday (August 22nd).
Launched Friday evening and concluded in the night from Saturday to Sunday after an intervention by the security forces, the attack on the Hayat hotel left at least 21 dead and 117 injured, according to a provisional report provided Sunday afternoon by the ministry. Somali Health.
Read alsoSomalia: death toll from Mogadishu hotel attack rises to 21
Without giving a specific number, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry said on Monday that it had received “
information that Norwegian citizens were killed in the terrorist attack on the Hayat hotel
”.
“
We are also investigating whether Norwegian citizens may have been injured
At the same time, ministry spokeswoman Ragnhild Simenstad told AFP, stressing that the conditions on site made any confirmation difficult.
Quoting the management of Oslo's biggest mosque, the Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang (VG) reported that two Norwegians in their fifties had been killed in the operation carried out by radical Islamists Shebab, a group linked to Al-Qaeda which has been fighting the Somali government for 15 years.
This attack is the bloodiest since the mid-May election of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud and the inauguration of the government in early August.
The Shebab were driven out of the main cities of this Horn of Africa country, including Mogadishu in 2011, but remain established in large rural areas and remain a major threat to the authorities.