Puntland MP assassinated in Somalia

A lawmaker serving in the local parliament of Somalia’s semi-autonomous region of Puntland has been assassinated.

On Tuesday, Puntland MP Abdullahi Ali was walking outside a mosque in the port city of Bossasso when a man armed with a pistol approached and shot him several times, eyewitnesses said.

Police arrived on the scene as the man was fleeing, and according to some residents, the police went in pursuit of the assassin and there was an exchange of gunfire, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Abdullahi was the second Puntland MP killed in the past two months.

On November 11, Puntland MP Ibrahim Elmi Warsam was gunned down in Garowe, the administrative capital of Puntland.

On the same day, the chief justice of the Puntland high court, Sheikh Mohamed Abdi Aware, was assassinated in Bossasso.

On Monday, January 4, Puntland security forces thwarted an attempt to set off a bomb at Bossasso’s main port.

Despite the recent upsurge in violence, Puntland, which declared itself an autonomous part of Somalia in 1998, has enjoyed relative peace compared to other regions of Somalia.