Witnesses said gunfire erupted late Friday in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, as government troops approached the home of the city’s former police commander, who was fired for extending the president’s term.
The stand-off reveals divisions in Somalia’s security services that threaten to see the powers turn, creating an opportunity for the al-Qaeda-linked Al Shabaab insurgency to exploit.
“Somalia’s protracted political crisis has entered a new, dangerous phase,” the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, said in a letter on Saturday.
‘It is said that the opposition is considering forming a parallel government; cracks deepened in a security device long divided along trunk lines; and the president’s opponents promised to resist the expansion of his rule. ‘
Somalia, which has been devastated by the civil war since 1991, is trying to rebuild with international aid, but the road to stability is being hampered by a political crisis caused by the failure to hold the elections that were to take place in February.
On Monday, lawmakers extended President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed’s term from four years to two years.
The resolution was adopted after Saadaq Omar Hassan, Mogadishu police chief, announced that parliament had been suspended, causing his dismissal moments later. read more
Hassan returned to his home in the Shirkole area of the city, which is guarded by 100 armed men reinforced by tribal fighters, his family and residents said.
Calm returned after the shooting, but some Shirkole residents held street demonstrations in support of Hassan, burning tires and shouting slogans against the president.
“If you are attacked, you have to defend yourself,” said Mahad Mohamed Salad, a pro-Hassan lawmaker.
The government has denied any involvement in the attack.
“We have no interest in attacking a civilian area where most of the residents are children and women,” Homeland Security Minister Hassan Hunbdubey said in an online address late Friday.
Donors, who opposed the president’s attempt to extend his tenure, fear the crisis could bring down the attacks of Islamic militants al Shabaab, who has been trying to run the government for years.
The militants killed Mohamed Abdi Hayle, the district commissioner for Hamarjajab on the outskirts of Mogadishu, on Friday, the state news agency reported.
They also captured the Becaadweyn area in the central state of Galmudug without resistance on Thursday after the Somali army left the area, residents said.
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