Ethiopian Review

Unknown gunmen shoot down chairman of Kakaar in Somalia's breakaway region of Puntland

(PressTV) — Gunmen have shot dead a government official in Somalia’s breakaway region of Puntland, as violence continues to take toll in the war-torn nation.

Yassin Saed Hussein, the Chairman of Karkaar region in Puntland, was killed late Sunday when unidentified gunmen attacked his vehicle en-route to Qardho town.

According to our correspondent, Hussein was to act as mediator in a clan dispute over lands between Puntland and Somaliland.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

Puntland’s new president Abdurahman Mohamed Farole – who is scheduled to arrive in Karkaar for the chairman’s funeral – has vowed to bring the assassins before justice.

The northern Somali region which declared its autonomy in 1998 is well known for harboring Somali pirates who have turned the Gulf of Aden into the world’s most dangerous waters.

Meanwhile in an effort to put an end to the increasing insecurity in the Horn of African nation, Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali called on militant groups to lay down their weapons and join the government.

“The doors are open for peace talks…Today Somalia needs a National Unity Government,” Abdirashid Ali said during a press conference in Mogadishu on Monday.

He also stressed that the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) will stay in the country for “as long as we need them” until “stability returns to the region”.

The premier added that AMISOM forces will also undertake the training of government and police forces in the conflict-wracked country in the near future.

Abdirashid Ali’s remarks are opposed to that of the Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, who had previously said there would be no need for further foreign forces and that those currently deployed would soon leave the country.

Also on Monday, influential clerics and local clan elders once again demanded the withdrawal of the foreign forces, while Somali opposition groups vowed to continue fighting AMISOM troops until the peacekeepers are completely withdrawn from Somalia.