Al-Shabaab militants have shot dead a member of the Somali Federal Parliament and a government official…
Al-Shabaab militants have shot dead a member of the Somali Federal Parliament and a government official in Mogadishu in two separate drive-by shooting incidents on Saturday, witnesses have said.
In the first attack, an official working in the Prime Minister’s office was killed in Dharkenley neighbourhood as he was driving to work in the morning, while the assailants managed to escape from the scene before security forces arrived.
MP Abdullahi Hussein Mohamoud was shot dead in a drive-by shooting hours after the first incident, while his driver was critically injured. He was sworn in as a Parliamentarian in April, replacing his father who had passed away due to illness.
An official from al-Shabaab claimed the responsibility of the attack and threatened to continue the attacks on the legislators.
The killing of the MP comes hours after an anti-terror law was introduced to the country’s Federal Parliament.
Government assassinations are nothing new as al-Shabaab tactic, but now the extremists are taking aim at officials who are much more low-level, who often do not have the sort of bodyguards or other protection that top leaders do. Some of the victims have only the slimmest connections to the authorities.
Since 2012 when the new parliament was formed, at least ten legislators have been gunned down in Mogadishu. Most of the assassinations have been claimed by al-Shabaab yet others were politically motivated.
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