Ex-Mayor Accuses Somali PM of Insurgents Links

The immediate former mayor of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, has accused the country’s Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein of having ‘deep connections’ with the hardline insurgent group Al Shabaab. Former Mayor Mohamed "Dheere" Omar cited the prime minister’s safe landing at Mogadishu’s main airport upon return from Djibouti on September 25 as proof of a link between Hussein and Al Shabaab, saying not even President Abdullahi Yusuf could travel by air as the insurgents had threatened to blow up all planes yet they allowed the prime minister to land safely. Hussein sacked Dheere from his mayoral position in June, leading to a power tussle with President Yusuf that almost disintegrated the country’s fragile interim government. A former warlord, Dheere is believed to be one of the president’s close allies.[PE]