an attack by Shebabs in Mogadishu in a context of “total war”

“ A group of Shebab fighters attacked a hotel in Bondhere district this evening [et] the security forces are hired to eliminate them National Police spokesman Sadik Dudishe said in a statement.

Many civilians and politicians have already been rescued and evacuated from this hotel, the Villa Rose, he added. The Minister of the Environment tweeted that he was safe after a ” terrorist explosion aimed [sa] residence ” in the hotel.

The Villa Rose hotel is a popular place for Somali MPs, located in the central safe area of ​​Mogadishu, not far from the office of the country’s president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud.

For its part, the ATMIS, the new peacekeeping force led by the African Union in Somalia, wrote on Twitter that it condemned ” firmly today’s terrorist attack on the Villa Rose hotel “. And she ” expresses its solidarity with the government and people of Somalia “.

Victories from the Somali government

This new attack is the second of this scale targeting a place of power in the Somali capital, while the Somali president launched a “ total war » against the group since the summer.

Its new military strategy, consisting of relying on clan militias, as well as American and African Union military assistance, had so far made it possible to regain ground, explains Leonard Vincent, from the Africa editorial staff of RFI. In the Somali public press, the term “ terrorist » is now replaced by the term “ renegades “. Each successful military operation against the shebabs is praised, with figures and photos, like the one that liberated the village of el-Dhere on Saturday, November 26, on the border of the states of Hiraan and Middle Shabelle, at the cost of a hundred deaths on the side of the shebabs. About sixty villages have thus changed hands since the summer.

The ministers and the head of state himself are increasing their field trips to the states most concerned. Hassan Cheikh Mohamoud thus returned Thursday, November 24, for the second time, to the village of Nur Dugle, recently taken over. ” As long as I’m presidenthe said last week, the government will be determined to eradicate the Shebabs from the country”promising soon » the release of other sectors. A television channel was even specially inaugurated on Wednesday, so that the Somali public is properly “ informed about military operations against terrorists “, according to the public channel SNTV.

Radical methods and hard ground to ” hold »

But this strategy also has its drawbacks. It is done at the cost of radical methods, in particular towards traders who lose their license if they continue to pay forced tax on shebabs. A well-known journalist, Abdalle Ahmed Mumin, is being prosecuted after criticizing the fact that the authorities see everywhere “ Propaganda » jihadist.

And, like this Sunday evening, the jihadists are striving to carry out complex, deadly attacks, in the heart of Mogadishu, near places of power, with the aim of changing the balance of power with the government and its allies. And then in the countryside, believes Omar Mahmood of the International Crisis Group, “ the most difficult thing is not to regain ground “, but of the “ hold “.

►Also read: In Somalia, the UN denounces the increase in the number of civilian victims of violence resulting from Shebabs