Somalia's youngest minister shot dead by bodyguards of the country's auditor general

Somalia’s youngest minister has been shot dead in an incident close to the presidential palace in the capital Mogadishu. The 31-year-old Abbas Abdullahi Sheik Siraji was appointed Minister of Public Works and Reconstruction by Prime Minister, Hassan Ali Kheyre in March this year. 

Bodyguards attached to the Auditor general, Nur Farah opened fire on a car carrying Abbas near a checkpoint close to the palace. Senior Somali security member Mohamed Hassan told the German news agency that the minister's bodyguards had falsely identified Farah, who was travelling in a bulletproof vehicle, as a threat and there had been an exchange of gunfire.

The late minister was a former refugee who spent large parts of his life at a camp in Kenya.

He was the youngest member of Somalia's new cabinet. Somalia's information minister, Abdirahman Omar Osman, sent condolences over the death, calling Siraji a "brilliant and rising young star who showed commitment in serving his country".