The 2009 Hotel Shamo bombing was a suicide bombing at the Hotel Shamo in Mogadishu, Somalia, on 3 December 2009. The bombing killed 25 people, including three ministers of the Transitional Federal Government, and injured 60 more, making it the deadliest attack in Somalia since the Beledweyne bombing on 18 June 2009 that claimed more than 30 lives.
The attack took place inside the meeting hall of the Hotel Shamo in Mogadishu during a commencement ceremony for medical students of Benadir University and was carried out by a suicide bomber dressed as a woman, "complete with a veil and a female's shoes", according to Minister of Information Dahir Mohamud Gelle.[5] According to witnesses, the bomber approached a speakers' panel, verbally greeted them with the phrase "peace", and detonated his explosives belt.[6] Former Minister of Health Osman Dufle, who was speaking when the blast happened, reported that he had noticed an individual wearing black clothing moving through the audience immediately before the explosion.[7]
The ceremony—the second since Benadir University was formed in 2002 and a rare event in war-torn Somalia—had attracted hundreds of people.[5]In attendance were the graduates and their family members, University officials,[8] and five ministers of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG).[5]Security inside the meeting hall was light and all of the ministers' bodyguards were outside the hall.
The bombing killed 24 people[1] and injured 60 others.[2] Most of those killed were students,[2] but also among the dead were two doctors, three journalists,[10] and three government ministers—Minister of EducationAhmed Abdulahi Waayeel, Minister of Health Qamar Aden Ali, and Minister of Higher Education Ibrahim Hassan Addow were killed.[5][7] Minister of Sports Saleban Olad Roble was critically injured, and was hospitalised. He was later reported to have been flown to Saudi Arabia for treatment,[11] where he died on 13 February 2010.[12]
The three journalists killed in the bombing were: Mohamed Amiin Abdullah of Shabelle Media Network, a Somali television and radio network;[7][10] freelance photographer Yasir Mairo, who died of injuries in hospital;[10] and a cameraman alternately identified as freelancer Hassan Ahmed Hagi[7] and Al Arabiya cameraman Hassan Zubeyr[10] or Hasan al-Zubair.[8] Their deaths raised to nine the number of journalists killed in Somalia during 2009, including four for Radio Shabelle.[10] The explosion also injured six other journalists, including two—Omar Faruk, a photographer for Reuters, and Universal TV reporter Abdulkadir Omar Abdulle—who were taken to Medina Hospital in critical condition.[10]
THROWBACKTHISDAY; makes it 6 years and TBT Blog remembers.
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