GAROWE, Somalia — Gunmen shot and killed a supervisor at a Dubai government-owned port operation in Somalia’s semiautonomous area of Puntland on Monday, a neighborhood authorities official stated, and the Islamist militant group generally known as the Shabab claimed duty for the assault.
The Shabab have been additionally suspected to be behind a automobile bombing at a shopping center in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, later within the day. The blast killed 11 folks and wounded 10 others, the police stated.
The assault on the port in Bosaso got here when two males disguised as fishermen shot the manager, Paul Anthony Formosa, at a fish market as he was touring to work, stated Yusuf Mohamed, the governor of the Bari area of Puntland, the place the killing occurred.
Mr. Formosa, a citizen of Malta, died of his wounds at a hospital. One of many attackers was shot and killed by safety forces on the scene, and the opposite was detained, the Bari governor stated. The Dubai-based port operator, P&O Ports, stated three others have been injured within the taking pictures.
Abdiasis Abu Musab, a spokesman for the Shabab’s army operations, stated the militant group was behind the killing. “We had warned him however he turned a deaf ear,” he stated of Mr. Formosa. “He was illegally in Somalia.”
The assault on P&O Ports comes because the United Arab Emirates has quickly expanded its port operations and army presence in Somalia and throughout East Africa. P&O Ports has had operations in Bosaso since 2017, when it gained a 30-year concession to develop and handle the port.
The Shabab stated they’d focused P&O Ports as a result of it “occupies” the Bosaso port. The militant group is attempting to take away the Western-backed central authorities in Somalia and set up its personal rule primarily based on a strict interpretation of Shariah regulation.
Its militants have been identified to hold out assaults exterior Somalia, particularly in Kenya, the place it has sought to stress the nation’s leaders to withdraw troops who kind a part of an African peacekeeping power that helps defend the federal government.
The Shabab’s latest assault in Kenya, a suicide and gun assault at an workplace and resort complicated within the capital, Nairobi, final month, killed 21 folks.