Hiiraan Online
Wednesday, November 21, 2018
MOGADISHU (HOL) – Two employees with Somalia’s largest telecom company, Hormuud have been shot dead in the Somali capital Wednesday in string of attacks by suspected ISIS-linked militants that killed over ten employees with the company in recent weeks, officials said.
According to witnesses, gunmen have fatally shot the two employees who were heading to a mosque in Mogadishu’s main Bakara market in which the company’s headquarters is located.
The attackers have reportedly escaped the scene after the attack, parts of several attacks targeting the company’s employees in recent months.
Hormuud officials were not immediately available for comments. However, officials suspect that the deadly new attacks against the telecommunication company is linked to extortion demands by the so-called Islamic State that the company’s managers have allegedly refused to agree to.
Somalia’s main businesses continue to face pressure by different groups including al-Shabab and ISIS trying to extract extortion fees in the form of levy taxes and protection money to fund their deadly insurgency across the long-chaotic horn of Africa nation.