Thursday, July 10, 2014
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UNITED NATIONS--- The UN secretary-general's special representative for Somalia, Nicholas Kay, on Wednesday condemned Tuesday night's attack on Villa Somalia, the seat of the Somali Federal Government in the capital Mogadishu, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters here.The attack was the latest in a series of attacks by Al Shabaab against Somalia's political institutions, Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here, quoting Kay.
After meetings with both the president and prime minister of Somalia, Kay said that the political progress in Somalia is only possible through the unity of its political institutions, and the unity is being attacked by those determined to plunge the country back into turmoil, according to the spokesman.
Dujarric said that Kay reiterated the UN's support for the people and institutions of Somalia as they make progress towards stability and peace.
Four people including three militants were killed in an attack overnight on the presidential palace in Mogadishu. The attackers used car bomb explosion and gunfire during the assault. Islamist al-Shabaab militants claimed responsibility for the attack. Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was not at the palace at the time of the attack.
This is the second attack by Islamist militants on the Somali presidential palace. In February, heavily armed fighters launched a similar attack on the state house.
The Al Qaeda-linked Islamist group had vowed to increase its attacks on Somali government targets and the African Union peacekeeping forces in Somalia during the ongoing holy month of Ramadan.