Rival groups clash in Somali capital over president’s mandate

The gunfire heard across much of the city highlighted earlier warnings that the election standoff could increase instability in the Horn of Africa nation. Estimated hundreds of mutinous soldiers, still in uniform, took up key positions in northern Mogadishu as some residents hid, AlJazeera reported.

Somalia’s homeland security minister, Hassan Hundubey Jimale, expressed condolences to all victims but did not say how many people had been killed or wounded. He accused “some people who are not interested in the security of their people” of launching an attack in Mogadishu and said security forces had repulsed them.

The president signed a law in mid-April extending his mandate for two years, stoking opposition inside Somalia and putting him on a collision course with Western and other donors opposed to the move.

Somalia, which plunged into war and chaos in 1991, has been struggling to re-establish the authority of the central government and rebuild the nation, with international help. The failure to hold elections that were due in February sparked a new crisis.

ZZ/PR