Ongeri in Mogadishu suicide bomb drama

MOGADISHU

Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Ongeri was yesterday evacuated from the Somali capital Mogadishu, after surviving a suicide attack targeting that country’s new President, Mr Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

A Kenya Defence Forces jet flew Prof Ongeri and his delegation out of the war-torn country, minutes after a suicide bomber stormed the Jazeera Palace hotel where the minister was meeting President Mohamud.

Prof Ongeri, who arrived in Nairobi at around 7.30pm, said he had experienced “firsthand how desperate people are determined to destabilise the government.” He was accompanied by MPs Mohammed Affey, Fred Kapondi, Abdirahaman Ali, and Adan Keynan.

Five people were killed in the attack. “The minister is safe and he has been evacuated together with the Kenyan delegation. They are out of Mogadishu right now,” Foreign Affairs assistant minister Richard Onyonka said.

Mr Onyonka, however, did not give details of the Kenyan delegation that had accompanied the minister. The minister was in Somalia to deliver a goodwill message from President Kibaki to the newly elected Somali leader.

The Somali leader was elected on Monday. A Foreign Affairs official said that as Prof Ongeri was addressing hosts, who included President Mohamud, an explosion occurred at the hotel’s main entrance, causing pandemonium.

Four soldiers, including three from the Somali National Forces and one from Amisom, died in the attack. The soldiers were part of the security team that was manning the hotel as the VIPs paid diplomatic tributes on Somali’s new elections.

But a statement from Amisom appeared to contradict the reported number of deaths attributed to other sources and witnesses.

“Two suicide bombers were shot and blew up as they attempted to penetrate the hotel where President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has been staying since his election on Monday. Another was intercepted and shot dead as he attempted to scale the walls of the compound,” read the statement.

Three wounded

Amisom further indicated that only one  of their soldiers was killed and three others wounded during the attack. By evening, the Nation was unable to reach the minister, who was said to be on his way to Nairobi.

A Kenyan diplomat, Ms Yvonne Khamati who was at the hotel where Prof Ongeri and President Mohamud were meeting, posted a message on twitter, confirming that the minister had survived the terror attack.