WHO Reports Staffer Among Victims of Hotel Siege in Somalia

The head of the UN health agency revealed on Sunday that a World Health Organization employee was among those killed during the weekend siege of a beachfront hotel in the capital of Somalia, Mogadishu.

According to police, six civilians died during the siege, and another 10 were injured.

The recent attack in #Mogadishu, #Somalia, claimed the life of a WHO employee, as Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of WHO, tweeted on Sunday.

He said, “My deepest sympathies to their families and to everyone who lost a loved one.” “We strongly condemn all acts of violence against civilians and aid workers.”

Since it began fighting the internationally supported federal government of Somalia more than 15 years ago, the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabaab has frequently targeted hotels because they frequently house senior Somali and foreign officials.

Seven attackers stormed the Pearl Beach hotel, a popular location at Lido Beach along Mogadishu’s coastline, just before 8:00 p.m. on Friday (1700 GMT), when the most recent attack, for which Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility, started.

Police reported that it came to an end at around 2:00 am following a bloody gunfight between security forces and the militants, all of whom were killed in the conflict.

The attack at Lido Beach highlighted the country’s pervasive security issues as it struggles to recover from decades of conflict and natural disasters in the Horn of Africa.

Al-Shabaab, which an African Union force drove out of Somalia’s major towns and cities, still controls a sizable portion of the countryside and carries out attacks against civilian and security targets, including in the capital.