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By Guled Mohamed
Reuters
Friday, July 28, 2006; 7:29 AM
BAIDOA, Somalia (Reuters) – Gunmen shot dead a Somali government minister outside a mosque on Friday in a killing sure to exacerbate tensions in the violence-plagued Horn of Africa nation.
The attackers opened fire on Constitution and Federalism Minister Abdallah Deerow Isaq as he left prayers in the provincial town of Baidoa, witnesses and officials said.
“It looks like an organized assassination,” Information Minister Mohamed Abdi Hayr told Reuters from Baidoa, seat of the fragile interim Somali government.
Formed in 2004 in the 14th attempt to restore central rule to Somalia since the 1991 ousting of a military dictator, the government’s authority has been challenged by the rise of an Islamist movement that took Mogadishu and other towns in June.
With Ethiopian troops said to be in Somalia to support the government, and Eritrea believed by many to be arming the Islamists, many Somalis are bracing for war.
In Mogadishu, another mysterious plane landed on Friday, fuelling suspicions the Islamists were receiving weapons deliveries. Their militia blocked roads near the airport as unidentified cargo was unloaded.
Residents said several trucks came to collect the delivery from the airport. “The people couldn’t enter the airport because security was so tight,” resident Hawo Hussein said.
“The Islamists are arming themselves and now we have to wait for fighting,” said another resident, Abdullahi Ali.
RESIGNATIONS
The Islamists recently reopened the airport. Since then, three planes have landed. The first collected a delegation of Islamists for peace talks in Khartoum.
On Wednesday, a cargo plane delivered goods an Islamist aide said were sewing machines. But the government pointed the finger at Eritrea, which it said was secretly arming the Islamists.
In what government sources say were moves to draw the Islamists into peace talks and avert war, 18 ministers and other top officials quit the interim government on Thursday and lawmakers sought to oust the prime minister.
Regional diplomats and analysts say offering the prime minister’s job and some other ministerial posts to the Islamists could be the only way to secure peace.
But there is no guarantee the Islamists will accept this. Nor is it clear how long it might take to thrash out a deal.
The Islamists’ most powerful leader, hardline cleric Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, has ruled out any meeting unless Ethiopia stops its “invasion” of Somalia.
Ethiopia, which is allied to President Abdullahi Yusuf’s government, denies sending troops and has also accused old foe Eritrea of supplying arms to the Islamists.
The United Nations has an arms embargo on Somalia. But it has been ignored for years, and the nation of 10 million people is awash with light and heavy weaponry.
(Additional reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian in Nairobi)
Source: Reuters, July 28, 2006
