Abdirahman Omar Osman, the mayor of Somalia’s capital Mogadishu has died from wounds sustained in a suicide bomb attack on his office.

Government officials on Thursday said he died in Qatar where he had gone for treatment after the attack.

He sustained serious injuries when a suicide bomber from the al Shabaab militant group struck while a meeting was being held at the municipal government headquarters last week, killing six senior local government officials.
Officials said the mayor had been airlifted to Qatar for treatment together with nine others.

Osman was a naturalised Briton who returned to Somalia to help rebuild the war-torn country after serving as a councillor for the Labour party.

Speaking to newsmen, the spokesman for Mogadishu local government, Saleh Omar Hassan said, “the Mogadishu mayor has died today in Qatar. May Allah rest his soul. The other injured ones are still being treated there in Qatar.”

Out of respect for the dead Mayor, President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed declared three days of mourning and ordered that flags be flown at half-mast.

Al Qaeda-linked Islamist group al Shabaab, which aims to topple Somalia’s U.N.-backed government, has carried out several attacks against government and civilian targets.

Osman had previously served as Somalia’s information minister, a post he had been appointed to in 2010. He became mayor of Mogadishu in 2018.

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