Stray shot said to kill activist in Somalia

JOHANNESBURG — Preliminary investigations show that a Somali Canadian peace activist was killed by a stray bullet this week in Mogadishu, the peacekeeping mission in Somalia said Friday, while some family members at her funeral shouted, “We want justice.”

The statement by the African Union mission said Almaas Elman was hit while traveling in a car Wednesday inside a heavily defended base near the international airport where many diplomats and aid workers have offices in the Horn of Africa nation.

The former diplomat was the latest member of Somalia’s diaspora to be killed after returning home to help rebuild the country after decades of conflict, including a Somali Canadian journalist who died in a bomb blast in July. Elman’s family founded a prominent peace center in Somalia and her sister, Ilwad, was reportedly was on the short list for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

In a statement Thursday, Ilwad Elman said her sister would be laid to rest at a mosque in Mogadishu during Friday prayers. “Thank you for all of the love.”

The African Union statement said there was no record of a weapon being fired inside the base at the time Almaas Elman was shot and other stray bullets had been reported previously. It called her death “heart-wrenching and unfortunate.”

Almaas Elman had been working with the European Union in Somalia. “We had been blessed by her energy for the last months. Her memory will be with us,” the EU ambassador, Nicolas Berlanga, tweeted.