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Somali's new president Hassan Sheikh/FILE

Africa

Somali leader moved to secure complex after attacks

Somali’s new president Hassan Sheikh/FILE

MOGADISHU, Sept 14 – Somalia’s new president has been moved to a secure compound after surviving an assassination bid that dented hopes of change in the violence-scarred country and brought condemnation from the United States.

Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was the surprise winner of Monday’s election in the poverty-stricken Horn of Africa nation that has been the battleground of warlords and Islamist militias for more than two decades.
The Al-Qaeda linked Shebab militia claimed responsibility for the apparent twin suicide bomb attacks on Wednesday outside the Mogadishu hotel where Hassan had been meeting a Kenyan delegation.

Hassan was unharmed in the attacks, but three soldiers — two Somalis and a Ugandan from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) — were killed in what appeared to be an attack by multiple suicide bombers in security forces’ uniforms.

The new president was transferred to Villa Somalia, a highly fortified complex home to several Somali institutions, AMISOM spokesman Colonel Ali Houmed said Thursday.

A Somali security official confirmed that Hassan was taken to the Villa, which still houses outgoing president Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.

The United States condemned the assassination bid, just days after voicing hopes that Hassan’s election would usher in a new era for the troubled country.

“The United States condemns these attacks in the strongest possible terms and calls on all Somalis to refrain from inciting violence,” Hilary Renner, spokeswoman for the State Department’s bureau of African affairs, told AFP Thursday.

At home the violence also dampened the mood of cautious optimism that followed Hassan’s election.

“It was a hit within an area where the African Union has had control for some time,” a Western diplomat told AFP. “It reminds everybody there is still work to be done.”

The Shebab, which has been waging a bloody insurgency against Somalia’s Western-backed government, warned Tuesday that it considered illegitimate the UN-backed process which saw newly-designated lawmakers elect Hassan.

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AMISOM troops have wrested control of most of Mogadishu from the Shebab in recent months, but the insurgent group has continued to attack foreign and government targets, mostly with suicide bombers.

Shebab has vowed its attacks will continue “until the liberation of Somalia”, where Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Burundi and Djibouti have all sent troops to support the government.

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