Tragedy: Security forces mistakenly kill Somali Minister
MOGADISHU-(AGV) – Somalia security forces, this week shot dead a 31-year old government minister after mistaking him for a militant Islamist.
According to BBC the late Minister Abdullahi Sheikh Abas, was killed in his vehicle near the presidential palace in the capital Mogadishu.
Following Abas’ killing, the country’s president, Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, has cut short his visit to Ethiopia.
President Farmajo has not commented on the circumstances of Abas’ killing, but just said he had ordered security chiefs to immediately investigate the unfortunate tragedy.
Reports are however, rife that several people have been arrested without much details on the circumstances surrounding the killing of Minister Abas.
Somalia’s Security forces, have been fighting with militants who carry out suicide and gun attacks in Mogadishu.
The troops are said to be sometimes nervous, and have previously shot officials and even each other by mistake.
Abas, the Public Works Minister, is probably the most high-ranking official killed by friendly fire. He was a former refugee, and grew up in Dadaab Camp in Kenya, home to hundreds of thousands of Somali who fled the drought and civil war.
The late Abas became the country’s youngest MP last November aged 31, when he defeated a former minister.
Somalia held elections in February this year and Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, became the new president in a surprise result.
