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Top UN envoy deplores latest attacks on elected Somali leaders

Top UN envoy deplores latest attacks on elected Somali leaders

Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah
The United Nations envoy to Somalia today condemned the latest spate of violence aimed at members of the strife-torn nation's fledgling Government after unidentified gunmen shot dead a lawmaker and attempted to kill a member of Cabinet this week.

The Secretary-General's Special Representative for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, said the attacks in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, were aimed at delaying work to restore peace and the adoption of Sharia law by the Parliament.

The UN-facilitated Djibouti Agreement aided the formation of a new Government of National Unity in February, as well as the creation of a newly-expanded Parliament and election of President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed in the Horn of African nation, which has been ravaged by factional conflict since the overthrow of Siad Barre in 1991.

Deploring the attacks, the Special Representative noted that those behind these violent acts are desperate. “They are aware of the positive steps made by the Government and its efforts to respond to the wishes of the people and the region.”

“Their real objective is to denigrate Somalia's image in the region and further abroad and to keep the country in the state of lawlessness that has benefited them for the past 20 years,” stressed Mr. Ould-Abdallah, adding that he had confidence they would not succeed.

The insurgents have not only been condemned by the international community and the Somali leadership, but by their own people, he stated. “Those who carry out these attacks against Somali Moslems will not escape the justice of God or of men.”

The attacks on Wednesday and Thursday this week, come after a roadside bomb injured the Interior Minister and killed one of his assistants in Mogadishu at the end of March.