Interior Minister Briefs Parliament on Security, HUBAAL Attack Investigation
Hargeisa (The Independent) – Somaliland’s interior minister Mohamed Nur Arale (Duur) has briefed the House of Representatives yesterday on the security situation following outcry from the country’s journalists on the blatant attack and the failed assassination attempt on the life of Hubaal Media Network manager Mohamed Ahmed Jama ‘Aloley by government’s security officials.
The circumstances surrounding the attack and assassination attempt of the veteran journalist on April 24 have still not been defined, although “the masked men who attacked Hubaal Media Network Manager are policemen and will prosecute them before the law”, Interior Minister Mohamed Nur Arale (Duur) said while speaking in Parliament on the issue.
The minister accompanied by the police commissioner Brigadir Abdilahi Fadal Iman, immigration director, and the director general of the interior ministry pledged that the government will bring the perpetrators to the court. Two gunmen attacked the headquarters of the independent media network known as Hubaal Media Network at around 11:20 pm on Wednesday (April 24), injuring manager Mohamed Ahmed Jama, known as Aloley. “We were finishing up our work on the newspaper when the gunmen attacked us.
They immediately targeted our manager,” Hubaal Somali newspaper editor Hassan Hussein Kefkef told us. He said they hit Jama with a club, breaking his hand, but he fortunately survived when they missed a shot fired at him. “The gunman shot his pistol at me and it hit the wall,” Jama said. One of the gunmen escaped, but newspaper employees captured the other one and handed him over to Criminal Investigation Department officials and security police, Jama said.
Evidence found on the mobile phone of the arrested man showed that officials from the Somaliland administration are involved in the crime, Jama said. “Unfortunately, we have confirmed that the man who committed the crime is a member of the police force,” he said. “He exchanged phone calls with government officials, such as the director of presidential transportation, a short while before the attack.” Chief of Police Brigadier General Abdullahi Fadal Iman confirmed that the arrested man was a member of the police force and is currently under investigation. He said they are also looking for the escaped gunman.