Human rights office attacked in Mogadishu

A human rights organisation in the Singani district of North Mogadishu came under attack from an unidentified group of armed men on Sunday night and was then the scene of heavy fighting as armed militiamen from the headquarters of Ali Mahdi Mohamed, whose forces control the district, drove off the attackers with the help of local civilians. Co-chair of the Dr Ismail Jumale Human Rights Centre, Hassan Shireh Sheikh, said it had the records of almost all serious human rights violations during the civil war and had been the subject of serious intimidation in the past few months, the Chinese news agency, Xinhua, reported on Monday.