Army releases Somalia defence minister

By Steven Candia

THE army freed Somalia’s state minister for defence yesterday, a day after he was detained and questioned by security officials in Kampala.

Sheikh Yusuf Mohamed Siad, a former warlord also known as “Inda’ade” or “white eyes”, was seized by Ugandan security agents on Tuesday as he walked out of a mosque in Kisenyi after prayers.

The incident initially triggered off fears among relatives and colleagues that he had been kidnapped. But army spokesman Lt. Col. Felix Kulayigye yesterday dismissed the fears.

“We received intelligence that a dissident was coming in and since we were vigilant, we picked him from the mosque not knowing that he was a minister,” he told The New Vision.

“We just got interested in him because we didn't understand why he had entered the country the way he did.”

Kulayigye had said earlier that the Somali minister raised suspicions by arriving unannounced on a private visit. Colleagues said he was visiting relatives in Kampala.

Kulayigye added that the minister was freed after security established his identity.

“We could not set him free in the middle of the night and so had to wait until day time. As of this morning (Wednesday), he is no longer with us.”

Mohamed Siad, a former warlord from the Lower Shabelle region, has switched sides several times in Somalia’s endless conflicts.

He was a leading member of Somalia’s Hizbul Islam insurgents, fighting the transitional government, before he defected earlier this year.

Uganda has about 3,000 soldiers serving in Mogadishu as part of the African Union’s peacekeeping mission, which is guarding the air, sea ports and the presidential palace.

Somali rebels struck the peacekeepers’ headquarters last month with a double suicide car bombing, killing the deputy commander from Burundi and slightly wounding the Ugandan commander.

It was the latest deadly attack on the African peacekeepers. Some members of the Somali government have been accused of passing on information and weapons to the insurgents.