Five arrests in Somaliland
2004-03-22 13:07
Nairobi - Authorities in Somalia's self-declared republic of Somaliland on Sunday blamed the murder of a Kenyan woman and her Somali colleague, both of who worked for a German aid agency, on the Islamic group known as Al Ittihad al-Islamia.
Assailants opened fire on a vehicle carrying three staff of the German Agency for Technical Assistance (GTZ) on Friday, killing the Kenyan woman on the spot and wounding two men, a Somali and a German. The Somali later succumbed to his injuries.
"The Mogadishu-based Al Ittihad al-Islamia organisation is responsible for the killings," Somaliland's Interior Minister Ismail Aden told reporters by telephone from Hargeisa, Somaliland's capital.
Police said they had arrested five people in connection with the attack.
"The team leader of these assassins was most of time in Mogadishu and he admitted being a member of that extremist Islamic organisation, and is allied to the Transitional National Government (TNG)," he added.
"The attackers bought a vehicle at Hargeisa for $18 000 before the incident took place. It was a prepared attack financed by the group (Al Ittihad)," Aden added.
The militant Al-Ittihad is listed by the United States as a terrorist organisation with links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
The Mogadishu-based TNG dismissed Somaliland's claims that it had links to suspects arrested in connection with the murder of the aid workers.
"The regional administration in north Somalia (Somaliland) came with accusations before investigating the incident," TNG's Information Minister AbdulKadir Abdulle said, adding that his administration had no intention to destabilise any part of Somalia.
Somaliland, a former British protectorate, became independent on June 26, 1960, but days later united with the Italian colony in the south to form the republic of Somalia.
It seceded from Somalia in May 1991, five months after late Somali strongman Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown. The region has remained relatively calm even as the rest of the country was plunged into anarchy.