Gunmen stormed a hotel in the town of Baladweyne in central Somalia on Tuesday and a siege was ongoing, two witnesses told Reuters. Dahir Amin Jesow, a federal lawmaker from Baladweyne, said so far at least four people had been killed but that "we are still counting casualties".

Al Shabaab gunmen killed at least seven people in an attack on Tuesday at a hotel in a central Somali town where local elders and government officials were meeting to discuss how to act against the Islamist militant group,

A car bomb has exploded at a hotel in the central Somali city of Beledweyne in a militant attack that killed at least six people, including two prominent traditional elders