Former Somalia Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire said an explosion went off on a popular beach in the Somali capital late on Friday evening.
The explosion occurred while residents were swimming on Liddo Beach, causing deaths and injuries, Khaire said on his X account, without giving more details on the casualties or who was behind it.
“I send my deepest condolences to the families, relatives and friends of those who were martyred in these explosions,” he said.
“The fact that the terrorist attack coincides with this night when the beach is the most congested shows the hostility of the terrorists to the Somali people.”
Videos posted on social media platform X showed bodies lying on the beach in the dark, with people scampering to safety.
Somali National Television said on X that security forces had eliminated the attackers and that medical personnel were responding to attend to those injured.
Al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group has in the past claimed responsibility for similar attacks.
The group controlled a vast area of Somalia before being pushed back in government counteroffensives in 2022.
However, the militants remain capable of launching significant attacks on government, commercial, and military targets.
Meanwhile, the director of Aamin Ambulance service, Dr Abdikadir Abdirahmman has confirmed that at least
eight people were killed and 28 others injured in an attack on a beach in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, that occurred late on Friday.
“We counted and confirmed 8 dead people and 28 others injured. But other people also took casualties and so the figure is sure to rise,” Dr Abdirahmman, told Reuters.
