Africa
How Al-Shabaab Stormed High-Security Prison Near Somali Presidential Palace
Somali government forces were fighting on Saturday to repel al-Shabaab militants who stormed a high-security underground prison in the capital Mogadishu, a witness and the government said.
Godka Jilaow, near the Villa Somalia presidential palace compound, houses several fighters from the al-Shabaab group, which has waged an insurgency in Somalia since 2007 and made significant advances in the countryside this year.
“We heard a huge blast at the cell gate and soon an exchange of gunfire started,” a paramilitary soldier in the area who gave his name as Ahmed told Reuters. “More forces were deployed to eliminate the fighters. (The) operation (is) still ongoing.”
AL-SHABAAB CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY
Residents near the area also confirmed the blast and exchange of gunfire.
Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack.
“We targeted the underground cell guarded by security forces. First it was started with a suicide car bomb and immediately infantry fighters went into the cell compound and they are fighting inside,” the group said in a statement, adding there were casualties and injuries among soldiers.
In a statement on state television’s Facebook account, the government said al-Shabaab fighters used a car disguised as a vehicle from the security forces to blast their way in.
“Some of the fighters were shot dead. What’s going on is the last operation to eliminate the fighters who attacked the place,” the statement said.
Kenya Insights allows guest blogging, if you want to be published on Kenya’s most authoritative and accurate blog, have an expose, news TIPS, story angles, human interest stories, drop us an email on [email protected] or via Telegram
KETRACO CEO Advert Marred By Controversies As Fears Grow That Kipkemoi Kibias Is A Predetermined Candidate
I Will Bribe Every Judge in Town- MP Jack Wamboka
KNH ON THE BRINK: How Corruption, Revenue Plunder and State Neglect Are Destroying Kenya’s Flagship Hospital
Receivers In TransCentury Sh6B KRA Tax Arrears Are Biased And Must Be Removed, COFEK Claims
The Man Behind the Badge: How Prof. Erastus Kanga Turned Kenya’s Premier Wildlife Agency into a Theatre of Corruption, Fear and Impunity
City Lawyer Conrad Maloba Arrested Over Fake Ambulance Fraud
How Little Known KwikBet Leveraged Stolen Kenyans Data To Build Its Empire
THE FIXER IN THE FILE ROOM: How Parliamentary Health Committee Clerk Adan Gindicha Cleared Mediheal Hospital of Organ Harvesting Claims Despite Mounting Evidence
Nairobi Freezes Binance Accounts in Sweeping Anti-Fraud Crackdown as Global Scandal Record Haunts World’s Largest Crypto Exchange
EXCLUSIVE: Odibets Bought Stolen Data From Millions Of Kenyans
Forged Legacy: How Kaplan and Stratton’s Peter Gachuhi Is Accused of Faking a Top AG’s Will as State Claims Damning Evidence
Inside Details Of Sh78 Billion Fraud in KPC’s Mombasa-Nairobi Line 5 Pipeline Project That Has Continued To Bleed The Country
Sold And Abandoned: How Diageo and Asahi Are Locking Kenya’s EABL Minority Shareholders Out Of East Africa’s Biggest Corporate Heist
Poison at the Pump: How Kenya’s Fuel Marking System May Be Exposing Millions to Cancer-Causing Chemicals
THE HANDSHAKE THAT BECAME A NOOSE: How Tuju’s Alleged Intimate Access to EADB’s Yeda Apopo Produced a Sh294 Million Deal With No Written Contract, and Why That Trust Destroyed an Empire
The Lawyer at the Centre of Kenya’s State Machine: Eric Gumbo, the AG’s Bypassed Office, and the Half-Billion-Shilling Question
How Firm Linked To Mombasa Tycoon Jaffer Was Allowed To Import Fuel At Bloated Price And Set To Make Billions In Profits From Iranian War Crisis In Kenya
THE ZAKHEM-ECOBANK MACHINE: How Kenya’s Courts Were Weaponised to Drain a State Corporation of Over KES 78 Billion
The Teflon Company: How Gulf Energy’s Insiders Built Billions on Kenya’s Fuel, and Walked Away Clean
The Debt They Would Not Pay: How Standard Group Ducked Sh50 Million In Regulatory Fee For Years, Then Called It A Witch-Hunt
-
Business2 weeks agoKenyan Motorists Stare At Possible Engine Damage And Heavy Losses As Report Confirms Substandard Fuel In Circulation
-
Business1 week agoTHE FUEL CABAL: How Mohamed Jaffer, a KPC Insider, and a Ministry Official Are Alleged to Have Manufactured Kenya’s Worst Petroleum Crisis in Three Years, While Kenyans Burned
-
Business2 weeks agoGetting Away With It: How Kenya’s Most Politically Connected Fuel Company Gulf Energy Is Pocketing Billions While Rival Firms Face Public Wrath
-
Business2 weeks agoHow Safaricom Could Sell You Out To KRA
-
News2 weeks agoThe Kewota Racket: How Kenya’s Female Teachers Are Being Bled Dry
-
Business1 week agoSugar Empire in the Dock: How Kibos’s Mombasa Refinery Landed 1,481 Phantom Tonnes at the Port — and Why Nine Government Agencies Are Now Watching Its Every Move
-
Investigations4 days agoEXCLUSIVE: Odibets Bought Stolen Data From Millions Of Kenyans
-
Business4 days agoNairobi Freezes Binance Accounts in Sweeping Anti-Fraud Crackdown as Global Scandal Record Haunts World’s Largest Crypto Exchange