• Somali men carry the body of a Syrian doctor for transport to Madina hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2013. A Somali official says suspected al-Qaida-linked militants have ambushed a convoy carrying doctors near Somali capital, killing six people, three of them foreigners. Capt. Mohamed Hussein, a senior Somali police commander, said Wednesday the convoy came under attack in a semi-forested area outside Mogadishu, while on their way to give medical assistance to patients at a hospital. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)
Mogadishu: Fighters in Somalia shot dead three Syrian doctors and their three Somali colleagues on Wednesday as they travelled to a hospital outside the capital Mogadishu, an AFP reporter said.
Their bullet-riddled bodies were carried into Mogadishu’s Madina hospital after the attack on road leading from the capital to Afgoye, a town some 30km northwest of the capital.
Doctors at the hospital said the foreigners killed were Syrians. “We do not know the motive behind the attack. This has shocked us and made us very sad. It is very unfortunate to see our colleagues being murdered for unknown reasons,” said Abdul Rahman Mohammad Fiqi, the director of the hospital where the doctors worked.
“The Syrian doctors fled their homeland because of the civil war and came to us voluntarily to help and work with us as doctors,” said Fiqi.
One Syrian doctor was also wounded in the attack, which took place as the group travelled down the road towards Afgoye, a former stronghold of the Al Qaida-linked Al Shabab insurgents, before they were driven from the town in May 2012.
However, a senior Al Shabab official said they did not carry out the attack, although their fighters have often carried out shootings, bombings and suicide commando raids against government and international targets, including aid workers.
The region is awash with guns and multiple armed men and militia forces operate in the area, one of the most dangerous places in the world for aid workers.
Somalia has been riven by civil war since the collapse of the central government in 1991.
The Al Shabab have been driven out of Somalia’s major towns by a UN-mandated African Union force (Amisom).
However the Al Shabab still controls large swathes of southern Somalia as well as pockets of Puntland.
On Monday, a new chief of the AU force took over command, vowing he would lead the 17,700-strong force in a fresh offensive against the Al Shabab, with over 4,000 reinforcements expected.
With extra troops, “Amisom will be able to expand its area of responsibilities to liberate other locations, which are currently in the hands of Al Shabab,” said new commander Silas Ntigurirwa, a Burundian general.
Al Shabab claimed responsibility for an bloody attack in September on a shopping mall in Nairobi in retaliation for Kenya’s military intervention in Somalia.
Last week, 13 people were killed in four attacks in Kenya during week-long celebrations to mark the country’s 50th anniversary of independence.
Source: Gulf News
2 December 2013
The United Nations envoy in Somalia today highlighted the urgency of appointing a new Prime Minister as soon as possible to maintain the progress made so far in the Horn of Africa nation, after incumbent Abdi Farah Shirdon lost a confidence vote in parliament.
Somalia’s President, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, now has 30 days to appoint a successor to Mr. Shirdon, who was in office for just over a year.
“I hope the President will consult widely before choosing. It is in all our interests that the next PM and Government is broadly inclusive, able to unite the country and capable of delivering what Somalia needs – peace, rule of law, economic growth and good public services,” said the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Somalia, Nicholas Kay.
Mr. Kay paid tribute to the outgoing Prime Minister, and noted that his departure was managed in accordance with the provisional constitution and the rules of procedure of the Federal Parliament.
“Somalia’s institutions are coming of age. The UN is here to support their development, and looks forward to working constructively with the new administration,” he stated in a news release issued by the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM), which he heads.
The envoy also urged the Federal Parliament to make progress on the many law-making and other constitutional tasks that the country urgently needs.
“Over the coming years, it is important that Parliament, Government and the Presidency continue to work constructively together in full respect for the Provisional Federal Constitution.”
Somalia has been torn asunder by factional fighting since 1991 but has recently made progress towards stability. In 2011, Al-Shabaab insurgents retreated from Mogadishu and last year, new Government institutions emerged, as the country ended a transitional phase toward setting up a permanent, democratically-elected Government.
UNSOM was established by the Security Council in June to support the Government and the people of the country in their quest for security and prosperity.