Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
7 January 2009
Mogadishu — Osman Elmi Boqore, deputy speaker of Somalia's parliament says efforts are underway to secure the release of a Somali lawmaker recently kidnapped by suspected insurgent fighters near the southern town of Baidoa, the seat of the parliament.
Member of Parliament Ahmed Abdi Hussein, who has newly joined the Somali parliament, was abducted by opposition fighters in Burhakaba, 60 km east of Baidoa, last week. News of his abduction has just emerged and efforts are underway for his release, deputy speaker Osman Ali Boqore said.
"The deputy left Baidoa without our knowledge and we were told he was picked up from a vehicle he was traveling in by the insurgents around Burhakaba four days ago and we are trying our best to secure his release," Boqore told radio Shabelle by phone from Baidoa.
He said he was contacted by a man claiming to be from the insurgents but was not "pleased with what he heard from him." Boqore said that he was making contacts with the relatives of the lawmaker and was trying to involve the clan of both the abductors and Hussein's "for the peaceful resolution of the incident."
Reports from Burhakaba, a town controlled by the hard-line Islamist insurgents of Al-Shabaab, said that the lawmaker is currently held in the town since he was taken hostage.
It is not clear what the insurgents would do with the lawmaker, but speaking to a local radio, a senior insurgent commander in Burhakaba said that the lawmaker would be "dealt with in accordance with the Koran," the holy book of Islam.
Insurgents captured another lawmaker, Osman Ali Hassan Ato, early last year as he traveled from Baidoa to the Somali capital, Mogadishu, but he was released unharmed hours after abduction.
Insurgents control most of the south and central Somalia while Somali government forces backed by Ethiopian troops and African Union peacekeepers are in control of only Mogadishu and Baidoa.
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