Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was the target of a bomb attack on his motorcade in the capital, Mogadishu, on Tuesday, according to the militant group al Shabaab.
Two senior government and military officials confirmed to media that Mohamud was unharmed in the assault. A presidential adviser, Zakariye Hussein, also shared on X that the president was “safe and on his way to the front lines.”
Witnesses, including soldiers and local residents, verified that the attack had struck the president’s convoy. A Reuters journalist at the scene reported seeing the bodies of four individuals killed in the blast near the presidential palace.
Al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack, stating in a message on its Telegram channel that its fighters targeted the convoy as it was departing the presidential palace and heading toward the airport.
While al Shabaab regularly conducts assaults as part of its long-running campaign to overthrow Somalia’s government, this marked the first direct attempt on President Mohamud’s life since 2014, when they bombed a hotel where he was delivering a speech.
Shortly after the attack, state media aired images of the president in the Adan Yabal district, located in Somalia’s Middle Shabelle region, where government forces are engaged in a three-week battle against a renewed al Shabaab offensive.