Al Shabaab targets Somalia's President in bomb attack on motorcade

Al Shabaab militants launched a bomb attack on the motorcade of Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud today while it was traveling through the capital, Mogadishu. The group claimed responsibility for the attack.

According to two senior government and military officials who spoke to Reuters, President Mohamud was unharmed in the incident. Presidential adviser Zakariye Hussein confirmed on X that the president was “good and well on his way to the front lines.”

Witnesses, including soldiers and local residents, reported that the president's convoy was struck during the attack. A Reuters journalist at the scene observed the bodies of four individuals who were killed near the presidential palace.

In a statement on their Telegram channel, Al Shabaab said, “Our fighters targeted a convoy of vehicles carrying Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as they were leaving the presidential palace and heading to the airport.”

While Al Shabaab frequently conducts attacks in Somalia as part of its long-standing effort to overthrow the government, this incident marked the first direct attack on Mohamud since 2014, when a hotel he was speaking at was bombed during his first term.

Shortly after the attack, state media broadcast images of President Mohamud in the Adan Yabal district of Somalia’s Middle Shabelle region, where government forces are currently engaged in combat against a three-week-long Al Shabaab offensive.