Al-Shabaab claims responsibility for killing Maltese port manager in Somalia

The terrorist group al-Shabaab has claimed that it has killed Paul Anthony Formosa in Monday’s attack in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland state.

Paul Anthony Formosa was shot and killed on Monday, February 4 by the jihadist group al-Shabaab. “An armed man shot and killed Paul Anthony Formosa who was the construction project manager for DP World. He was killed inside the port and the security forces also shot the killer on the spot,” the official, Mohamed Dahir, told AFP.

Formosa, who hailed from Malta, was a manager at Bossasso for P&O Ports, a subsidiary of the Dubai-based DP World. His LinkedIn profile shows that he had been in the position since August 2017. The governor of the Bari region Yusuf Mohamed, said that the perpetrators were disguised as fishers, at a fish market through which Formosa was passing to get to the port. One of the attackers was shot and killed by security forces at the scene.

One of the witnesses, Abdulkadir Weheliye commented that he heard multiple shots coming from inside the port. Then he could see the body of a white man being taken away in an ambulance. According to al-Shabaab’s claimed statement, the attack is part of broader operations targeting the mercenary companies that loot the Somali resources.