February 2022 Beledweyne Bombing

Overview

On the morning of 19 February 2022, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device inside a restaurant in Beledweyne, a city in the Hiran region of Hirshabelle State, Somalia. The blast killed 14 people and injured at least 12 others. Among those killed was a candidate standing in that month's parliamentary election. Al-Shabaab, the Somalia-based militant group affiliated with al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack on the same day.

Background

Al-Shabaab emerged as an Islamist insurgent group during the 2006–2009 phase of the Somali Civil War and has since carried out a long campaign of violence across Somalia, including repeated attacks in Beledweyne. The group took part in armed clashes in the city in 2008, 2010, and 2011. In 2009, it carried out a suicide car bombing at a hotel in Beledweyne that killed 57 people, and in 2013 it staged suicide attacks in the city targeting a restaurant and a police station. The February 2022 restaurant bombing fits within this pattern of recurring al-Shabaab violence in Beledweyne.

The Attack

The bombing took place at a restaurant in Beledweyne during the morning hours of 19 February 2022. The explosion killed 14 people, including a candidate in Somalia's ongoing parliamentary election process that month, and left at least 12 others injured. Al-Shabaab publicly claimed responsibility for the attack the same day it occurred.

Aftermath

Violence in Beledweyne continued in the following weeks. On 23 March 2022, two further suicide bombings in the city killed more than 30 people. One of these bombings killed Amina Mohamed Abdi along with a number of her bodyguards; the second was a car bombing directed at a hospital in Beledweyne.

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