Nearly 4000 Killed, Wounded By Suicide Attacks in Mogadishu since 2012

This week’s chart provides a summary of trends, targets, and locations affected by this intractable conundrum.

Last week, Al Shabaab terrorists targeted a bustling street full of restaurants, cafes, and shops near Mogadishu’s Maka Al Mukarama Hotel with twin suicide car bombs as residents enjoyed their evening with friends and family. The attack was devastating. Twenty-five people were killed, more than 130 others injured, while dozens of shops, cafeterias, and vehicles were reduced to rubble.

This week’s chart provides a summary of trends, targets, and locations affected by this intractable conundrum.

According to my analysis of 114 suicide bombings in the capital since 2012, suicide attacks are becoming more frequent, more complex, and more lethal. From vest-strapped lone suicide attackers in their early days to the use of two or more well-coordinated car bombers that hit multiple locations as an accessory to ground assault in targeted locations, suicide attacks are wreaking unimaginable havoc in Mogadishu: killing hundreds of innocent civilians, injuring many more, and destroying the livelihoods of many families each year.