Somalia’s youngest minister has been shot
dead in an incident close to the presidential
palace in the capital Mogadishu. The 31-
year-old Abbas Abdullahi Sheik Siraji was
appointed Minister of Public Works and
Reconstruction by Prime Minister, Hassan
Ali Kheyre in March this year.
Bodyguards attached to the Auditor general,
Nur Farah opened fire on a car carrying
Abbas near a checkpoint close to the
palace. Senior Somali security member
Mohamed Hassan told the German news
agency that the minister’s bodyguards had
falsely identified Farah, who was travelling
in a bulletproof vehicle, as a threat and
there had been an exchange of gunfire.
The late minister was a former refugee who
spent large parts of his life at a camp in
Kenya.
He was the youngest member of Somalia’s
new cabinet. Somalia’s information minister,
Abdirahman Omar Osman, sent condolences
over the death, calling Siraji a “brilliant and
rising young star who showed commitment
in serving his country”.
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