Somali vote tensions lead to gunfire
MOGADISHU, Somalia — Gunfire rang out in Somalia’s capital on Sunday between soldiers loyal to the government and others angry at the country’s leader as tensions spiked over President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed’s extended stay in power.
The gunfire heard across much of the city highlighted earlier warnings that the election standoff could increase instability in the nation. The estimated hundreds of mutinous soldiers, still in uniform, took up key positions in northern Mogadishu as some residents hid.
Somalia’s homeland security minister, Hassan Hundubey Jimale, expressed condolences to all victims but didn’t say how many people had been killed or wounded. He accused “some people who are not interested in the security of their people” of launching an attack in Mogadishu and said security forces had repulsed them.
The president faces growing opposition in Somalia and abroad after the lower house of parliament approved a twoyear extension of his mandate.
Somalia’s election, meant for early February, has been delayed amid disputes between the federal government and the states of Puntland and Jubbaland along with the opposition.
The soldiers were believed to have entered the city from military bases outside Mogadishu. Most of them belong to the clan of former presidents Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. Both have vowed to forcefully dislodge the president if he does not return to negotiations over the election delay or resign.