SOMALIA / ATTACK

Al Shabaab claimed responsibility for an attack on Saturday at a restaurant in Mogadishu which left 18 people dead and 20 injured. UN AU IST

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Production Date: 9 September 2013
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: AFRICAN UNION - AU
• Subject Topical: PEACE AND SECURITY; TERRORISM
• Geographic Subject: SOMALIA
• MAMS Id: U130909d

Description

STORY: SOMALIA / ATTACK
TRT:
SOURCE: AU/UN IST
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: SOMALIA / ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 07 SEPTEMBER 2013, MOGADISHU, SOMALIA

Shotlist

1. Wide shot, civilians walk through remains of the bomb blast
2. Mid shot, vehicle wreckage after bomb blast
3. Close up, tire of vehicle wrecked during the bomb blast
4. Various shots, civilians walk through blast scene with car wreckage in foreground
5. Med shot, mangled iron-sheets
6. Wide shot, bomb blast scene with pan up to billboard poster of president Hassan Sheik Mohamud
7. Med shot, President Mohamud walking into the conference room
8. Close up, poster marking the National Conference on Tackling the Phenomenon of Extremism in Somalia
9. Wide shot, conference room with elders and president at the high table
10. Close shot, elders and scholar in attendance at the conference
11. SOUNDBITE (Somalia) President Hassan Sheik Mohamud, Somali President:
“We are large in number compared to them, we are stronger than they are, we are more intelligent than they are, we have more wealth than they have, we know the religion more than they do and we have more experience than them, yet they are terrorizing people. There is something wrong with that. We need to consult together and discuss about it. It is not for the government alone or for the religious people alone but for all Somali people as a whole.”
12. Wide shot, exterior of the hotel hosting conference
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Professor Hassan Mohamud, Somali Imam based in the USA:
“The cancer is as we see like tribalism is a cancer this is another cancer plusC cancer that is destroying our people and our society and the future and also one of the like I would say big obstacle forming constructive government which is what we are working on.”
14. Wide shot, presidential convoy leaving the hotel

Storyline

Al Shabaab claimed a double suicide attack on Saturday (7 Sept) at a popular village restaurant in the Somali capital Mogadishu that killed 18 and injured more than 20 people.

The suicide attackers detonated two bombs at around lunchtime, one from a car bomb and the other from a second suicide bomber with a vest who detonated himself as people were trying to help those injured in the first blast.

The latest attack came minutes before President Hassan Sheik Mohamud opened a National Conference on Tackling Extremism in Somalia. The government-organised conference drew imminent Somali scholars, elders and Imams from both within the country and internationally to come up with strategies to fight against the extremism of the Al Qaeda linked al Shabaab group.

President Hassan Sheik Mohamud said that they no longer only attacked his government and its international partners, but the Somali people as well. He challenged all those attending the conference that the fight against extremism in Somalia was not just for the government or religious leaders, but for the Somali people to tackle as well.

SOUNDBITE (Somalia) President Hassan Sheik Mohamud, Somali President:
“We are large in number compared to them, we are stronger than they are, we are more intelligent than they are, we have more wealth than they have, we know the religion more than they do and we have more experience than them, yet they are terrorizing people. There is something wrong with that. We need to consult together and discuss about it. It is not for the government alone or for the religious people alone but for all Somali people as a whole.”

Professor Hassan Mohamud a Somali Imam based in the USA related this issue to a cancer that was destroying its people.
SOUNDBITE (English) Professor Hassan Mohamud, Somali Imam based in the USA:
“The cancer is as we see like tribalism is a cancer this is another cancer plus cancer that is destroying our people and our society and the future and also one of the like I would say big obstacle forming constructive government which is what we are working on.”

The five-day conference has pulled together over 150 people with the hope of tackling extremism and looking for ways to confront and defeat extremist ideology within Somalia. The extremist militant group al Shabaab was pushed out of the capital in 2011 by the Somalia National Army (SNA) with support from the African Union Force (AMISOM). They have since lost other urban areas they once controlled, but still pose a challenge to Somalia’s relative peace and the rapid development the country has experienced in the last two years.