Mogadishu (SD) – Two senators from the upper house of the Somali federal parliament have been denied traveling to Kismayo on Sunday, the senators wanted to attend the funeral of a Jubaland education minister.
Senator Abdullahi Sheikh Ismail Fartaag of the UPD party and Senator Iftiin Hassan Basto were refused to board a plane carrying the Jubaland minster’s body back to Kismayo for burial.
Senator Fartag who spoke to the media said that a Somali security official ordered the plane to be grounded and told the pilot if the plane was to travel to Kismayo the senators must be removed.
Senator Abdullahi Sheikh Ismail Fartaag also told reporters that the order was given by the Somali Minister of Aviation Mohamed Abdullahi Omaar as well as the National Security Agency.
The government’s refusal to allow the two senators to fly to Kismayo would be seen as an a further political escalation by the Kismayo administration, the two are yet to resolve Ahmed Madobe’s election as the Jubaland president last year.
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