The Somali Parliament has postponed this Monday the joint session scheduled for the day after the attack perpetrated on Sunday by the terrorist group Al Shabaab against a hotel near the Presidential Palace, which is still active because several assailants are still entrenched inside.
The session was scheduled for this Monday to address the Budgets for 2023, without the reasons for the postponement having been disclosed, although the attack on the Vila Rose hotel seems the most likely cause, according to the Somali station Radio Shabelle. The Council of Ministers approved last week the Budgets for next year and sent the agreement to Parliament, which has yet to give it the ‘green light’.
Local media have so far confirmed at least five deaths in the attack, while Mohamed Dahir, a Somali Police officer, has raised the death toll to ten in statements given to the German news agency DPA.
For their part, official sources cited by the British television channel BBC have indicated that the assault is close to ending, although the fighting in the hotel has not yet ended. The Government has not yet given an official balance of deaths.
Somalia has increased offensives against Al Shabaab in recent months with the support of clans and local militias as part of a series of decisions taken by the president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who promised upon taking office to put the fight against terrorism at the center of his efforts to stabilize the African country.
