Sinan Yılmaz: Turkish police officer martyred in Somalia remembered

Turkish Special Operations Police Officer Sinan Yılmaz, who was martyred in a terrorist attack in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, was remembered with prayers on the 12th anniversary of his death.

The heinous attack, on 27 July 2013, targeted an annex building of the Turkish Embassy in Mogadishu and was carried out by the al Shabaab terrorist group. Of the five terrorists, three were neutralised, while one suicide bomber detonated himself.

Yılmaz became a symbol of Türkiye’s contribution to Somalia’s stability and counterterrorism efforts and was the first Turkish police officer to lose his life in a terrorist attack in the country.

“We respectfully and gratefully commemorate Police Officer Sinan Yılmaz, who was martyred in the heinous terrorist attack on our Embassy in Mogadishu on July 27, 2013,” the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement issued on the anniversary of the attack.

Yılmaz engaged in combat during the initial moments of the attack to protect his fellow officers. Despite being shot twice in the abdomen, he continued to fight. He was severely wounded by shrapnel from a grenade and later succumbed to his injuries at Mogadishu Field Hospital despite all medical efforts.

Yılmaz’s services honoured

Originally from the village of Çamdibi in Tokat’s Erbaa district of Türkiye, 42-year-old Yılmaz was married and a father of three.

He had served in the Turkish Police Special Operations elite unit for 18 years after joining the force in 1995. He was deployed to Mogadishu on a temporary assignment on June 29, 2013.

Officer Yılmaz was laid to rest in his hometown on July 28, 2013, following an official funeral ceremony.

To honour his memory, a children’s park established by the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) in the garden of the Al-Huda Orphanage in Mogadishu was named after him: Şehit Polis Sinan Yılmaz Children's Park.

In recent years, relations between Somalia and Türkiye have been growing in various fields, including security, economy, education and diplomacy as well as culture ties.