Gunmen shot and killed the head of the Dubai government-owned P&O Ports’ operations in Somalia’s semiautonomous region of Puntland on Monday, a local government official said, and the Islamist militant group known as the Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack.
Yusuf Mohamed, the governor of the Bari region, said that two men disguised as fishermen had shot the executive, Paul Anthony Formosa, at a fish market as he was traveling to the port in Bosaso.
Mr. Formosa was rushed to a hospital, where he died of his wounds. One of the attackers was shot and killed by security forces at the scene and the other was detained, the Bari governor said.
“We are behind the operation,” said Abdiasis Abu Musab, a spokesman for the Shabab’s military operations. “We had warned him but he turned deaf ear. He was illegally in Somalia.”
P&O Ports confirmed that an employee working in Puntland had died and that three others were injured in what it called an “incident” at the port, but it provided no further details. P&O Ports has run the port in Bossaso port since 2017, when it won a 30-year concession to expand and manage the facility.
