Letter.

Letter Published in The National UAE on 15July 19 The Somali government needs help to fight Al I write in reference to your online ­article Somali police end 14 hour hotel siege, as death toll jumps to 26 (July 13). Your elaborate article on the recent Somali hotel siege by Al Shabab was well written, if dispiriting.Rightly, the brutal attack has been condemned across the world, not least because it claimed victims from the US, Canada and the UK, alongside Somalis.A candidate for regional president was also murdered by the terrorist group. Al Shabab has long sought to topple the government of Somalia and attacking prominent, luxury hotels is a recent trend for Al Shabab, as well as a number of other terrorist groups.This act is absolutely unacceptable and the perpetrators should be brought to swift justice. The Somali government should do all it can to safeguard foreign tourists and local professionals, journalists and politicians. Whether it can do this without international support is another story, after decades of violence and insecurity in the fragile Horn of Africa nation.K Ragavan, Bengaluru