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A minister from Somalia's Transitional National Government (TNG), who was detained by the authorities of the self-declared republic of Somaliland, was due to be "deported" to Mogadishu on Thursday.
Somaliland's Information Minister Abdullahi Muhammad Du'ale told IRIN the TNG's junior minister of posts and telecommunications, Abdullahi Jama Ali, was detained on Tuesday because he did not have permission to be in Somaliland. According to Du'ale, the authorities had no prior knowledge of his arrival.
Du'ale said Jama had been "mingling with some people and trying to leave some message", but the issue was primarily an "immigration problem". He added that Jama had been accommodated at a hotel in the capital, Hargeysa, "for his own security" and had spoken to his family.
The TNG authorities have confirmed Jama's arrest. The chief of staff in the prime minister's office, Ahmed Ise Awad, told IRIN he was detained while transiting through Hargeysa airport on his return to Mogadishu from a conference in the Egyptian capital Cairo.
Jama is from the Habar-Je'elo sub-clan of the main Isak clan, the predominant clan in northwest Somalia.
According to Awad, TNG Prime Minister Hasan Abshir Farah "regrets the incident and calls on the Somaliland authorities to release the minister immediately".
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
