Somalia’s opposition says it has written to Turkey urging it not to send a planned shipment of weapons to a special police unit that they fear incumbent President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed could use to “hijack” forthcoming elections.
Political tensions have been high in the Horn of Africa country, stoked by opposition anger over a delay in holding the elections for both chambers of parliament.
The polls were initially planned for this month but that plan was scrapped following disagreements over the composition of the electoral board.
On Tuesday opposition supporters marched in the capital Mogadishu denouncing the president for the delay.
In the letter addressed to Turkey’s ambassador in Somalia and seen by Reuters, opposition candidates said they had learned Turkey was planning to deliver 1000 G3 assault rifle and 150 000 bullets to Harma’ad, a special unit in Somalia’s police, between December 16 and December 18.
Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame, chairman of the Wadajir (unity) party and one of the candidates who jointly wrote the letter, confirmed its authenticity to Reuters.
The candidates, the letter said, are “worried about this amount of weapons … flooding the country at this sensitive election time.”
The president “has already used the Harma’ad forces for coercion and rigging of regional elections, and so there is no doubt the same Harma’ad forces and the weapons from Turkey will be used to hijack the upcoming elections,” it said.
There was no immediate comment from Turkish officials.
The post Somalia’s opposition urges Turkey not to send arms to police unit appeared first on SABC News – Breaking news, special reports, world, business, sport coverage of all South African current events. Africa’s news leader..
Read more here:: South Africa News Post