Kismayo Reopens Hotel Complex That Al-Shabab Stormed last Year

Officials on Saturday reopened the Somali luxury hotel complex that al-Shabab attacked last year in the deadliest extremist assault inside Kismaayu in several years.

The Asasey hotel in the southern Somali port city of Kismayo has reopened its doors one year after the deadly al Shabaab attack.

Twenty-six people were killed in the hours-long attack on the Hotel complex in the interim capital of Jubaland administration.

Several al-Shabab gunmen stormed the area, detonating explosives and sending panicked people fleeing.

Jubaland security forces together with Amisom security personnel ended the siege of the complex the following day, with most of the attackers killed.

Popular Somali- Canadian Journalist and the founder of Integration TV Hodan Naleye was among people who lost their lives in the attack.

Jubbaland regional politicians and businessmen were also killed in the attack.

Now with a new dubbed Madina the hotel owners said they are back to business to provide services despite the horrendous memories.

Located at the shores of the Indian ocean Kismayo has witnessed the rise of business activities linked to the return of diaspora eyeing for investment since the armed group was pushed out of the city in 2011 by Kenya Defence Forces and the Raskamboni Brigade.

Al Shabab, an Islamic terrorist group linked to al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack.

The July attack demonstrated Al-Shabab’s continued ability to carry out spectacular acts of bloodshed despite a dramatic increase in U.S. airstrikes against it in Somalia under President Donald Trump.

The group’s ability to conduct attacks at home and abroad continues to grow.
The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab has meanwhile vowed retribution after Kenya sent troops to fight the extremists in 2011.

Another large-scale al-Shabab attack on a Nairobi mall, Westgate, in 2013 killed 67 people. In 2019, the group carried out an attack at another Hotel complex in Nairobi that killed over 20 people.

Al-Shabab has killed hundreds of people in Kenya. In the deadliest attack, the extremist group claimed responsibility for an assault on Kenya’s Garissa University in 2015 that killed 147 people, mostly students.

Al-Shabab was ejected from Mogadishu in 2011 and has since been driven from most of its other strongholds.

However, it still carries out frequent attacks across Somalia, as well as in neighboring Kenya, whose soldiers form part of African Union-mandated peacekeeping forces that help defend the Somali government.