/ 28 July 2006

Somali minister shot dead

Somalia’s Minister of Constitutional and Federal Affairs Abdalla Derrow Issak was shot dead on Friday by an unknown gunman in the temporary seat of the transitional government, a relative said.

Issak was killed as he left the mosque after Friday prayers in Baidoa, about 250km north-west of the capital, Mogadishu, the relative added.

”Allah shall forgive him, Abdalla passed away after he was shot by an unidentified gunman,” one of his relatives told Agence France-Presse.

Issak was nominated to the Somali transitional Cabinet late 2004 when Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi formed his first government in Kenya. — Sapa-AFP