Saturday, August 04, 2007
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Mogadishu (AFP) - Somali gunmen killed a district commissioner north of the conflict-ravaged capital Mogadishu, witnesses said on Saturday.Haji Ali Fido, slain by armed attackers at his home in Yakshid district late on Friday, is the fifth district commissioner to be killed in the country this year.
"We are very concerned by the killing, the commissioner was the second to be killed in Yakshid district," said Mohamed Muhidin, a local authority official.
"The men, armed with two pistols, opened fire ... and managed to escape because there were no bodyguards. He died instantly," the commissioner's son, Mohamud Haji Ali, told AFP.
Nine district commissioners and deputy commissioners have been killed by suspected remnants of an Islamist movement since early this year when government and Ethiopian troops toppled the grouping, sparking a bloody insurgency.
Mogadishu has since suffered relentless violence that has claimed thousands of civilian lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of others.
Talks to reconcile the feuding factions kicked off on July 15 in the capital, gathering more than 1 000 clan representatives, but boycotted by the Islamists.
Somalia has been plagued by instability that has defied more than a dozen peace initiatives since the 1991 overthrow of former dictator Siad Barre.
Source: AFP, Aug 04, 2007