Gunmen killed a Somali peace activist in a central region on Sunday, colleagues said, the latest in a string of attacks against aid and rights workers in the shattered African nation.
Mohamed Hassan Kulmiye, a senior official with Mogadishu-based Center For Research and Dialogue (CRD), was shot dead in Beledweyne town, the capital of the Hiraan region.
“He was killed an hour ago inside his office, but we do not know the motive of the murder,” said one of his CDC colleagues who requested anonymity.
Several witnesses confirmed his death.
The CDC, a local charity that promotes social, economic and political development, was involved in the UN-mediated talks between the government and opposition groups in Djibouti, which ended in a truce agreement on June 9.
Kulmiye’s killing occurred a day after gunmen kidnapped Hasan Mohamed Ali, a Somali working with the UN refugees agency, at his residence in Elashabiyaha, south of the capital Mogadishu.
“We don’t know where they took him after snatching him from his house at around 8:44pm last evening,” another Somali UN official said who also requested anonymity.
“I saw four men armed with machine guns talking to him in front of his house and minutes later they kidnapped him,” said Farah Abdi Mohamed, a neighbor.
Since April, gunmen have been holding five aid workers — two Italians, a Briton, a Kenyan and a Somali — all seized in southern Somalia.
The same month, the UN and aid groups scaled down operations in Somalia because of increased insecurity.
This was largely blamed on Islamist militants, who have waged a deadly guerrilla war since they were ousted by joint Somali-Ethiopian forces early last year.
At least 2.6 million Somalis are facing hunger because of acute food shortages spurred by a prolonged drought, insecurity and high inflation.
UN famine monitors have warned that the figure could hit 3.5 million by year’s end.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in