MOGADISHU: Chanting “down with Al-Shabaab, down with the enemy”, hundreds of Somalis joined a rally Monday against the jihadist group at the site of a deadly beachfront assault in the capital Mogadishu. A suicide bomber and gunmen attacked the busy Lido Beach on Friday evening, killing 37 people and wounding scores more, in one of the deadliest strikes in the troubled Horn of Africa country in months. “We came here to Lido Beach to show we can’t be intimidated,” one of the protesters, Abdisalam Ahmed Abdullahi, said at the government-organized demonstration. “Mogadishu people are not afraid of the Kharijite enemy,” he said, using a government term for the militants who have carried out numerous attacks in the predominantly Muslim nation for years.

Survivors of Friday’s assault described how a suicide bomber blew himself up and then gunmen stormed onto the Indian Ocean beach, with one witness saying they “killed everyone they could”. Graphic footage shared online showing bloodied bodies on the sand, and scattered piles of shoes. Al-Shabaab, which claimed the attack, has been waging a bloody insurgency against Somalia’s fragile federal government for more than 17 years. Its fighters remain entrenched in rural areas in the south and center of the country despite being ousted from the capital in 2011.

A man holding the Quran joins the protest.

Women chant during the demonstration held at the site of a deadly beachfront assault claimed by Al-Shabaab.

‘Unite against the enemy’

Al-Shabaab has previously targeted the Lido area, which is popular with business people and government members as well as ordinary Somalis, including a siege on a beachside hotel in June 2023 that killed six civilians. Mogadishu local government official Mohamed Ahmed Diriye said Friday’s attack was to avenge the killing of about 200 Al-Shabaab fighters in July when they attacked military bases in Jubaland.

Both sides had claimed they inflicted heavy casualties in the raids and subsequent gunfights on the bases around 90 kilometers (55 miles) from the port city of Kismayo. “Instead of fighting the troops on the frontline, they have come to Lido beach and murdered innocent civilians including youth, women and children,” Diriye told the rally. Mogadishu mayor Yusuf Hussein Jumale urged people to take a stand against the jihadists. “You are the eyes and ears of the government and the army ... we need to unite against this Kharijite enemy together,” he said.

‘Enough is enough’

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud launched “all-out” war against the militants in 2022, joining forces with local clan militias in a campaign supported by an African Union force and US air strikes. But the offensive has suffered setbacks, with Al-Shabaab earlier this year claiming it had taken multiple locations in the center of the country.

In the most recent attack in Mogadishu, nine people were killed in a car bombing at a cafe during the Euro 2024 football final in mid-July. “Enough is enough, we cannot continue with our arms folded, we need to act against those murderers who have capitalized in shedding the blood of innocent people,” said another protester, Mohamed Abdikarin.

Elsewhere on the beach, a group of men wearing red headbands read from the Quran, their heads bowed. Amina Ibrahim Halane said she turned up to the rally in a show of sympathy for the victims of Friday’s attack, saying they were simply “innocent men ... enjoying their city”. — AFP