Somalia: Mogadishu mayor succumbs to wounds at hospital in Qatar

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Mogadishu Mayor Abdirahman Omar Osman has succumbed to his wounds at a hospital in Doha, the capital of Qatar on Thursday, 1st August 2019, Garowe Online reports.

Osman and nine of his staff were badly wounded when a suicide bomber blew up in his offices during a security meeting attended by high-ranking local government officials and district commissioners on July 24.

Al-Shabaab, the Al-Qaeda-linked extremist group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which left nearly 20 people, including two district commissioners and three state-level directors.

The group said the attack was intended to target UN's special envoy James Swan. 

He worked as information minister for a second time and then was appointed Mogadishu mayor in 2018, putting to work both his engineering degree and his years of experience working for the housing department in the London borough of Ealing.

The mayor of Mogadishu had fled Somalia for Britain as a refugee and earned a master’s degree, citizenship and years of experience as a councilor in London before deciding to return home to help rebuild his war-torn country.

GAROWE ONLINE