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Somalia’s prime minister pledged that the government will be held accountable over the deadly Mogadishu hotel siege by Al-Shabaab jihadists, whom he branded “children of hell”.

Hamza Abdi Barre also called on Somalis to unite against the Al-Qaeda-linked group, which has been waging a bloody insurgency in the impoverished Horn of Africa nation for more than 15 years.

“There will be accountability in the government… anyone who neglected the responsibility he was entrusted with will be held accountable,” Barre told reporters late Sunday.

He was speaking after visiting a hospital treating victims of the bomb and gun attack on the Hayat Hotel that the health ministry says claimed the lives of 21 people and wounded 117.

The 30-hour siege was the deadliest attack in Mogadishu since President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was elected in May after a protracted political crisis.

Al-Shabaab commandos stormed the hotel on Friday evening, with the siege only ending at around midnight Saturday after security forces bombarded the building, leaving much of it in ruins.

Police said more than 100 people, including women and children, had been rescued.

– ‘Unite against the enemy’ –

“There is only one of two choices here, we either allow Al-Shabaab — the children of hell — to live, or we live. We cannot live together,” said Barre, appointed prime minister in June.

“I call on the Somali people to unite to fight against the enemy… so that what they did now will never happen again.

“The fight against them has already started taking place around several locations,” he said, without elaborating.

The Hayat was a favoured meeting spot for government officials and scores of people were inside when a suicide bomber triggered a massive blast, opening a way into the site for heavily-armed gunmen.

Minutes later, a second explosion struck as rescuers, security forces and civilians rushed to help the injured, witnesses said.

Security officials were still combing through the rubble on Monday, hunting for explosives and possibly buried bodies.

The building remained cordoned off, but roads nearby had reopened and traffic was back to normal in Mogadishu.

“The only difference between this attack and previous ones is the length of the siege and how long it took for security forces to contain the situation,” said Samira Gaid, executive director of the Mogadishu-based Hiraal Institute think tank.

She said the change in Somalia’s leadership may have affected how the security forces responded. “There was the fact that security forces and security heads are expected to be changed whenever there is a new administration coming in.”

– ‘Repent’ –

Al-Shabaab has carried out several attacks in the mainly Muslim country since Mohamud took office. Last month it also mounted an incursion into neighbouring Ethiopia and raided a military base on the border.

Former Al-Shabaab commander Mukhtar Robow, who is now religion minister in Barre’s cabinet, condemned the attack and called on fighters to abandon the extremist group.

“I call on them to repent… I say to them, ‘you know that this is not right so repent and abandon (Al-Shabaab) and God willing you will survive’,” he said.  

Somalia’s allies, including the United States, Britain, the European Union and Turkey, as well as the UN, strongly condemned the attack, as did ATMIS, the African Union force tasked with helping Somali forces take over primary responsibility for security by the end of 2024.

Earlier this month, Washington said its forces had killed 13 Al-Shabaab operatives in an air raid, the latest strike since President Joe Biden in May ordered the re-establishment of a US troop presence in Somalia, reversing a decision by Donald Trump.

The Islamist militants, who espouse a strict version of sharia or Islamic law, were driven out of Mogadishu by an African Union (AU) force in 2011.

But they still control swathes of countryside and retain the ability to launch deadly strikes, often hitting hotels and restaurants as well as military and political targets.

The deadliest attack occurred in October 2017 when a truck packed with explosives blew up in Mogadishu, killing 512 people.

The Hayat assault was reminiscent of deadly sieges in neighbouring Kenya, a contributor to the AU force. 

Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for a four-day siege at a mall in Nairobi in September 2013 that killed 67 people and an hours-long attack on an upmarket hotel complex there in 2019 that left 21 dead.

Finland’s prime minister received a negative result in a drug test which she took to “clear up suspicions” after a video of the 36-year-old partying sparked criticism, her office said Monday.

Marin’s urine sample was tested for the presence of various drugs, such as cocaine, amphetamine, cannabis and opioids, Iida Vallin, a special adviser to the prime minister, told AFP.

“Drug test taken from Prime Minister Sanna Marin on 19 August 2022 did not reveal the presence of drugs,” Marin’s office said in a statement, adding that the results were signed by a doctor.

“The test was a comprehensive drug test. We did not choose how the test was done,” Vallin said.

A video leaked last week showed Marin dancing and partying with a group of friends and celebrities that created controversy across the world.

Some interpreted comments heard on the video as referring to narcotics, something heavily debated on social media and strongly denied by the prime minister.

“To clear up any suspicions, I have taken a drug test today,” she told reporters at her residence on Friday.

Marin previously said she was “spending an evening with friends” and that the videos were “filmed in private premises”. 

She admitted to having drunk alcohol. In addition to denying taking drugs, she said she did not witness any drug use by any of the attendees.

“Never in my life, not even in my youth, have I ever used any drugs,” she said.

Marin — who was appointed in 2019 at the age of 34 — has previously been the target of criticism over parties at her official residence.

In December 2021, she came under sustained criticism after it was revealed she stayed out dancing until the early hours despite having been exposed to Covid-19.

A poll commissioned by Finnish TV channel MTV3 at the time found two-thirds of respondents thought her night out was a “serious mistake”.

Nearly 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since Russia invaded, the country’s top military officer said Monday, as Moscow accused Kyiv over the assassination of the daughter of a leading hardliner.

The European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell meanwhile told reporters in Spain that the bloc was considering military training for Ukraine’s forces.

General Valeriy Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, said Ukraine’s children needed particular attention “because their fathers have gone to the front and are maybe among the nearly 9,000 heroes who have been killed”.

Zaluzhny’s comments on the Ukrainian death toll, reported by Interfax-Ukraine news agency, was the first indication of Kyiv’s military losses since April.

On Wednesday, Ukraine will mark its independence day — and six months since Russian troops invaded.

After Ukrainian resistance thwarted an early Russian push on the capital Kyiv, Moscow’s forces have focussed on gaining ground in the east of the country.

The shockwaves of the war are being felt around the world with soaring energy prices and food shortages.

– Putin denounces ‘vile crime’ –

Russia’s FSB security services on Monday accused Ukraine of being behind Saturday’s car bombing in the outskirts of Moscow that killed Daria Dugina, the daughter of hard-line Russian ideologue Alexander Dugin.

“The crime was prepared and committed by Ukrainian special services,” the FSB said in a statement Monday carried by Russian news agencies.

Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the “vile crime” in a message of condolence to her family.

The FSB statement said the person responsible was a Ukrainian woman born in 1979 who had rented an apartment in the same building where Dugina lived.

After the car bombing, she had fled to EU member Estonia, it added.

Dugin, 60, is an outspoken Russian ultranationalist intellectual who enthusiastically backs Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as did his daughter. Russian media reports suggest Dugina had borrowed her father’s car at the last minute.

Over the weekend, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak denied that Kyiv had had anything to do with the bombing.

– Tense Independence Day –

In Spain Borrell told reporters that EU defence ministers would next week discuss launching a major training operation for Ukrainian forces in nearby countries.

“It seems reasonable that a war that is lasting and looks set to last requires an effort not only in terms of supplies of material,” Borrell said.

EU defence ministers have a two-day meeting in Prague from next Monday.

“I hope it will be approved,” said Borrell, adding that the details would have to be agreed by all EU member states.

Any such operation would be a step up from the military training that several nations are already providing to Ukrainian forces under bilateral agreements.

With much of Europe preparing for fuel shortages as Moscow cuts back its deliveries to the west in response to sanctions, Bulgaria said Monday it was seeking talks with Russia gas giant Gazprom.

The country is almost totally dependent on Russia for its annual consumption of 3.0 billion cubic metres of natural gas.

“We obviously have to turn to them,” said Energy Minister Rosen Hristov.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky warned over the weekend that Russia might mark Ukraine’s Independence Day by launching a trial of Ukrainian soldiers captured during the siege of Mariupol.

“This will be the line beyond which no negotiations are possible,” he warned in Sunday’s nightly address.

The capital Kyiv has already announced a ban on public gatherings around Wednesday’s public holiday, and the city of Kharkiv, in the east, has declared a curfew.

Ahead of independence day, residents in Kyiv clambered on destroyed Russian tanks put on display in the city centre over the weekend.

Kenya’s defeated presidential candidate Raila Odinga filed a petition to the country’s top court Monday, challenging the outcome of the August 9 election in what he called a fight for “democracy and good governance”.

Odinga, a veteran opposition leader who ran with the backing of President Uhuru Kenyatta and the ruling party, has rejected the outcome of the poll that delivered victory to his rival William Ruto, branding it a “travesty”.

The 77-year-old politician lost his fifth bid for the presidency by a narrow margin of around 230,000 votes — less than two percentage points.

Hundreds of supporters cheered as dozens of boxes of evidence were unloaded from a truck outside the Supreme Court.

“We have enough evidence that it is us who won the election. We didn’t have an election we can be proud of,” Odinga told a press conference after filing the case.

The outcome of the poll represented a “continuing struggle pitting the forces for democracy and good governance against the corruption cartels that… will stop at nothing to take control of government,” he said, without giving specific details.

“The action we have taken… affirms our deep belief in constitutionalism, the rule of law and a peaceful resolution of disputes.”

Although polling day passed off peacefully, the announcement of the results a week ago sparked angry protests in some Odinga strongholds and there are fears a drawn-out dispute may lead to violence in a country with a history of post-poll unrest.

Since 2002, no presidential election in Kenya has gone uncontested, with this year’s outcome also causing a rift within the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) which oversaw the poll.

According to a copy of the 72-page petition seen by AFP, Odinga’s team alleges that IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati failed to tally around 140,000 votes.

As a result, Ruto “did not meet the constitutional threshold of 50% plus 1 of the valid votes cast” — a requirement for him to be declared the winner.

Judges now have 14 days to issue a ruling. If they order an annulment, a new vote must be held within 60 days.

– ‘We want justice’ –

Odinga supporters began gathering outside the court hours before his arrival, blowing whistles and waving placards reading “Electoral Justice Now!” and “We want justice now”. 

“Odinga must win so that we get the 6,000 shillings ($50) promised in his manifesto,” said one man, wearing a crown made with plants who was referring to a monthly cash handout for vulnerable households.

Another man — armed with a Bible and wearing huge green glasses — knelt down in prayer as police guarded the court premises.

A court clerk told AFP the tribunal had also received another eight petitions over the results filed by voters, politicians and non-profit organisations.

The IEBC was under heavy pressure to deliver a clean vote after facing sharp criticism over its handling of the August 2017 election, which was also challenged by Odinga.

The court annulled that election in a first for Africa and ordered a re-run which was boycotted by Odinga. Dozens of people died during a police crackdown on protests.

In a shock development shortly before the results of this year’s poll were announced, four of the IEBC’s seven commissioners accused chairman Chebukati of running an “opaque” operation and later said the numbers did not add up.

Chebukati dismissed the claims, insisting he had carried out his duties according to the law of the land despite “intimidation and harassment”.

– Divided opinion –

Legal experts are divided on whether Chebukati needed the commissioners’ backing to announce the results, with constitutional lawyer Charles Kanjama telling AFP there was “some ambiguity” surrounding the issue.

Odinga has previously said he was cheated of victory in the 2007, 2013 and 2017 elections, and the poll’s aftermath is being keenly watched as a test of democratic maturity in the East African powerhouse.

On the campaign trail, both frontrunners pledged to resolve any disputes in court rather than on the streets.

Since the results were declared, Odinga has commended his supporters for “remaining calm” while Ruto has taken a conciliatory tone and promised to “work with all leaders”.

Kenya’s worst electoral violence occurred after the 2007 vote, when more than 1,100 people died in politically motivated clashes involving rival tribes.

If the Supreme Court upholds the results, Ruto will become Kenya’s fifth president since independence from Britain in 1963, taking the reins of a country battling inflation, high unemployment and a crippling drought.