Tuesday, September 09, 2008MOGADISHU (AFP) — A gunman Tuesday killed a Somali lawmaker in the provincial town of Baidoa, the latest in a series of attacks in the lawless African nation, a witness and colleague said.
Mohamed Osman Maye(Photo) died on the spot outside a mosque in Baidoa, site of the country's transitional parliament, about 250 kilometres (155 miles) northwest of the capital Mogadishu, they said.
"He was shot in the head outside a mosque where he had attended evening prayers. Maye is now dead and may Allah rest his soul in peace," Amir Shaketi, another lawmaker, told AFP.
Witness Yassin Mohamed said a lone gunman fled the scene after shooting the lawmaker, who did not have bodyguards.
"I saw a man running from the scene after shooting the MP, then people gathered around his body," Mohamed added.
Maye becomes the second Somali lawmaker to be killed in Baidoa since the country's parliament and government relocated from exile in Kenya in June 2005 to attempt to pacify the country.
Somalia plunged into civil war after the 1991 ouster of president Mohamed Siad Barre, setting off a deadly power struggle that has defied numerous attempts to restore a functional government.
Source: AFP, Sept 09, 2008
