AFRICA – Somali security forces shot dead four suspected terrorist insurgents from the Al-Qaeda linked Shebab organisation last week, foiling an attack on a political conference in the town of Adado, officials in the capital Mogadishu said.
More than 400 local politicians, leaders and clan elders were meeting in the town when gunmen tried to storm the building, with one blowing himself up in the process, the AFP agency reported.
Police and army forces, including African Union troops, managed to thwart the attack, said security official Mohamed Sugule. Adado is centrally located, 300 miles north of Mogadishu.
Conference organiser Halimo Ismail Yarey said no delegates had been harmed in the attack, which came at the start of Islam’s holy month of Ramadan.
The conference has been going on since early May with political leaders discussing ways to establish an administration within the framework of Somalia’s federal system.