DPA
Thursday, February 22, 2007
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Two officials in the Somali transitional government were shot to death by unidentified gunmen, local media reported on Thursday, as violence and insecurity in the capital Mogadishu continues to mount. The district officials were both shot dead Wednesday evening by unidentified attackers.
"The acting chairman of Wadajir district, Abdi Omar Gogeye and the chairman of Yaqshid, Muhudin Hassan Haji, were killed within minutes of each other on Wednesday evening when Ethiopian and government troops could be seen patrolling in some of Mogadishu's neighbourhoods," Somali news agency Shabelle reported.
Mogadishu has seen increasing insecurity since the government seized it in December from an Islamist group that ruled much of the war-torn country for six months.
Residents have been fleeing the area in the thousands, raising alarm from humanitarian workers. At least 12 people died earlier this week in the heaviest mortar attacks on the capital since the government claimed Mogadishu.
The government has been struggling to assert its authority over the anarchic capital that until the arrival of the Islamists was overrun by gun-toting clan militias.
Ethiopian soldiers propping up government troops are awaiting an African Union peacekeeping force before they begin to withdraw from the Horn of Africa country.
Somalia has been without strong central rule since dictator Mohammed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991, sweeping the country into lawlessness and warlord rule.
Source: DPA, Feb 22, 2007