Monday, May 07, 2012
By Aislinn Laing
A brawl broke out at the Somali embassy in the Zambian capital Lusaka after the East African country apparently sent a new ambassador to take over without recalling the incumbent, according to reports.Sources at Zambian police headquarters said they were summoned to the embassy on Friday morning by Ambassador Shirwa Ibrahim and found the two men squaring up.
“Ambassador Ibrahim said there was a man who was bothering him at the office claiming that he had been appointed by their president to take over his job,” the source told a Zambian newspaper. “The situation got very tense because the two got physical.”
Since both presented diplomatic credentials, neither could be arrested.
Mr Ibrahim later said that the “impostor” was a member of the Zambia-Somali Friendship Association in Lusaka and claimed the man’s credentials were forged.
Dr Effron Lungu, Zambia’s deputy foreign minister, said that Mr Ibrahim remained the ambassador until such time as Zambia was contacted by the Somali government and told otherwise. The Zambian-Somali Friendship Association could not be contacted for comment