Two suicide bombers blew up at the gates of the Jazeera hotel and a third was shot by security forces while the new president was talking to journalists inside the hotel together with Kenyan Foreign Minister Sam Ongeri.
Western observers said they were surprised the new president was housed in a hotel — just a few hundred metres from the capital’s extremely well-protected airport, which is AMISOM’s main base.
Hassan, who garnered 70 percent of the vote Monday, will remain at Villa Somalia with Sharif until the official handover Sunday.
Hassan was the first Somali president to be elected in Mogadishu since Siad Barre, whose ouster in 1991 plunged the country into civil war.
The various transitional presidents who have been in office since 2000 were all chosen in other countries for security reasons.
Hassan’s election came after a long UN-backed political transition process aimed at restoring permanent institutions in Somalia, and it fuelled hopes that the country may be able to emerge from two decades of war.
The attacks underlined “what we all know, that Al-Shebab still have capabilities and presence in Mogadishu, and that game is not over yet,” a European diplomat told AFP.
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