2021 Dar es Salaam shooting

On 25 August 2021, a gunman opened fire at two locations in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.[1] He initially killed two police officers at an intersection and stole the officers' rifles. He walked several hundred metres to the French embassy, where he killed another officer and a security guard.[1] The gunman also injured six other people, before being shot dead by police.[1] The attack occurred during the day on Ali Hassan Mwinyi Road, one of Dar es Salaam's main avenues in the diplomatic quarter.[2]

Dar es Salaam shooting
LocationDar es Salaam, Tanzania
Date25 August 2021
Attack type
Spree shooting
WeaponsRifle
Deaths5 (including the perpetrator)
Injured9
PerpetratorHamza Mohamed
MotiveIslamic extremism

Background to the massacre

On 2 September 2021, authorities confirmed that the attacker, identified as Hamza Mohamed, was motivated by Islamic extremism.[3] Prior to the shooting, he visited social media pages related to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.[4] Simon Sirro, the chief police inspector in charge of the investigation, said the attack was probably motivated by the Tanzanian government's fight against Islamic terrorists in Mozambique.[5] Such attacks were relatively rare in Tanzania, although there have been Islamist attacks in the past, including the killing of police officers and civil servants in the eastern district of Kibiti in 2016 and 2017.

Commemoration

In Dar es Salaam, on the eve of the attack, dozens of Tanzanian police officers, politicians and citizens gathered to pay tribute to the victims.[2]

References
  1. Tanzania: Gunman kills 4 near French embassy
  2. "En Tanzanie, l'attaque de Dar es-Salaam a été menée par un « terroriste » islamiste". Le Monde.fr (in French). 2021-09-03. Retrieved 2022-03-04.
  3. "Tanzania says gunman who killed four people last month was a terrorist". Reuters. 2 September 2021.
  4. "Tanzania: Gunman who killed four people last month was a terrorist". AfricaNews. 2 September 2021.
  5. "Tanzania shooting: Gunman kills four in diplomatic quarter of Dar es Salaam". Sky News. Retrieved 2022-03-04.
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