(ANSA-AFP) - MOGADISCIO, APRIL 26 - Isolated gunshots echoed tonight in Mogadishu, after a series of clashes that took place during the day between armed men and Somali forces on the sidelines of a demonstration by opponents of President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, known as Farmajo .
The situation remains tense in the Somali capital where all the main roads are blocked by the armed forces. Earlier in the evening, a prolonged firefight pitted armed men against Somali forces at kilometer 4, a busy downtown intersection.
Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame, one of the opposition leaders, said his home, located in this area, was targeted.
Somalia has plunged into a deep political crisis since the second half of 2020, unable, due to lack of political consensus, to hold the elections scheduled between the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021. On 12 April, the Somali parliament approved a law extending the two-year mandate of the president, which expired in February, provides for a direct universal election in 2023.
Already last Sunday, dozens of opposition supporters calling for Farmajo's resignation had demonstrated in the Fagah district, north of the capital, accompanied by men heavily armed. There had been a first fire fight, followed later by a second confrontation, in Marinaya, a neighboring neighborhood where former president Hassan Sheik Mohamud, another opposition leader, resides.
There is no news of any victims or injuries.
The British embassy in Somalia and the EU ambassador Nicolas Berlanga both said they were "very worried" about the situation. (ANSA-AFP).
