Somalia’s minister of public works and reconstruction was shot dead in Mogadishu on Wednesday, after another minister’s bodyguards wrongly suspected his vehicle of being a security threat.
Soldiers escorting Somalia’s Auditor General Nur Farah reportedly fired on Abbas Abdullahi Siraji’s vehicle as he drove towards the Presidential Palace’s gates.
Somalia’s President Mohammed Abdullahi ‘Farmaajo’ said on Wednesday he would shorten his state visit to Ethiopia and return to Mogadishu on Thursday.
“I’ve ordered the security heads to immediately get to the bottom of this unfortunate tragedy and make sure the perpetrators are brought to book,” the president’s office said on Twitter.
It is believed the bodyguards mistook the minister’s car for one belonging to the Islamist rebel group, al-Shabaab, which regularly attacks government targets with car-bombs.
Siraji’s vehicle was mistakenly shot at by government security guards outside the presidential palace, a senator, Ilyas Abdulahi, told AFP.
Somalia’s Information Minister Abdirahman Omar Osman tweeted that Siraji had a “full and promising future ahead of him”.
Siraji promised to work hard towards Somalia’s development at a recent TedX talk in Mogadishu on April 20.
“When we come together as youth, women, elders, everyone, we can build our country and do anything else we want,” Siraji said.