TNA Speaker attacked

The Speaker of Somalia’s Transitional National Assembly, Abdalla Deerow Isak, was attacked in Tayeglow, Bakol Region, in south central Somalia on Saturday. The speaker, who was visiting his home town was attacked by forces loyal to the Chairman of the Rahanwein Resistance Army (RRA) Colonel Hassan Mohamed Nur Shatigadud, according to a report from the BBC and local media sources. Somali sources in Mogadishu said some nine people were killed and many others wounded in the ensuing firefight.

The attack took place a day after Deerow and a group of ministers and MPs from the Rahanwein clan arrived from Mogadishu. The delegation was part of a process by the interim government to send government officials to their home areas to shore up support for the new government, government officials told IRIN.

The speaker was attacked while he was holding a town meeting in Tayeglow town. The RRA attackers lost four men in the attack while the Deerow group lost five men, two of them traditional elders, the Mogadishu newspaper ‘Qaran’ reported. The RRA also captured five transport vehicles and ten 200 litre drums of fuel from the speaker’s group, the paper added.

The speaker and other members of the delegation escaped unhurt. Deerow and his delegation are currently believed to be in the village of Misir 30 km north of Tayeglow. “They are all accounted for, including the minister of higher education, and are in perfect health,” a senior government official told IRIN on Monday. The RRA also withdrew from Tayeglow and are now encamped 20 km south of the town, said the source.

Shatigadud, one of the faction leaders opposed to the Interim government, told the BBC on 7 January, that Deerow, a former secretary-general of the RRA, was a traitor and was not welcome in the area.