Gunfire rang out late Friday in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, witnesses said when government troops approached the home of the city’s former police commander, who was fired for opposing a move by the president to and extend the term.
The confrontation reveals clashes within Somali security services that threaten to see forces return to each other, creating an opportunity to exploit al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab insurgency.
“Somalia’s long-term political crisis has entered a new dangerous phase,” the international crisis group, a Brussels-based think tank, said in a briefing on Saturday.
“The opposition is said to be considering the formation of a parallel government; the cracks have deepened into a security apparatus divided along the clan’s lines; and the president’s opponents have vowed to resist expanding his government.”
Somalia, avenged by the 1991 civil war, is trying to rebuild itself with international help, but the road to stability has been blocked by a political crisis caused by the failure to hold elections in February.
On Monday, lawmakers extended the term of President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed by up to two years.
The resolution was adopted after Mogadishu police chief Saadaq Omar Hassan announced that parliament had been suspended, triggering his removal moments later. Read more
Hassan retreated to his home in the Shirkole area of the city, which is guarded by 100 armed men who were reinforced by clan fighters, the family and locals said.
Calm returned after gunfire erupted, but some Shirkole residents held street demonstrations in support of Hassan, burning tires and shouting slogans against the president.
“If you are attacked, you have to defend yourself,” said Mahad Mohamed Salad, a pro-Hassan MP.
The government has rejected claims that it wants to attack Hassan.
“We have no interest in attacking a civilian area where most residents are children and women,” Homeland Security Minister Hassan Hunbdubey said in an online address late Friday.
Donors, who have opposed the president’s move to extend his term, fear the crisis could support further attacks by Shabaab’s Islamist militants, who have been trying to overthrow the government for years.
Militants killed Mohamed Abdi Hayle, the district commissioner for Hamarjajab on the outskirts of Mogadishu, on Friday, the state news agency reported.
They also captured the Becaadweyn area of central Galmudug without resistance on Thursday, after the Somali army left the area, residents said.
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