A Somali-British journalist, who was with Almas Elman when she was skilled by a ‘stray bullet’ inside Mogadishu’s heavily-fortified Halane camp on November 20, has been detained over her murder.
Said Fadhaye remains in detention more than a week after Almas was shot dead inside the heavily-fortified Halane camp near the Mogadishu airport because ‘he was the only person seated next to her inside a car when the bullet hit her.’
President Mohamed Farmajo’s National Security Advisor Abdi Said Muse Ali said Said Fadhaye is being investigated over the murder of Almas. The government confiscated his passport to prevent him from leaving the country.
African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) said a stray bullet killed Almas. Almas was leaving a peace meeting in Halane camp and was heading to the airport at the time.
“Pending a final report, preliminary investigations indicate Ms. Elman was hit by a stray bullet, especially as no firearm discharge was reported within the base camp at the time of the incident,” said a an Amisom statement.
The peacekeeping mission promised to conduct a full investigation with Somali security forces and other agencies.
According to local reports, the vehicle had a total of three people, the driver, a male passenger and the deceased Almas who was seated in the back seat behind the driver.
The Elman family questioned the Amisom account, and called for a joint investigation by Canadian and Somali authorities to find out how she was killed in a military-controlled compound in Mogadishu.
“Any statements on the circumstances surrounding the death of Almas are premature and not helpful to our family, including speculation on whether this was a ‘stray bullet,’” the family said.
The Somali criminal investigations department (CID) has launched investigations into the cause of Almas’ mysterious death.
Almas, a Somali-Canadian peace activist and a former diplomat, grew up in Ottawa after her family fled the civil war in Somalia. Her father, peace activist Elman Ali Ahmed, was murdered in Mogadishu in 1996. Her mother, Fartuun Adan, founded the Elman Peace Centre in Somalia, and her sister, Ilwad Elman, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize this year for her work in Somalia.