Somalia
Somalia: Hiran region's Islamist governor returns home amid tension
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Aug 28, 2009 - 1:48:40 PM

BELETWEIN, Somalia Aug 28 (Garowe Online) - The governor of Somalia’s Hiran region has returned home after spending months in the Somali capital Mogadishu, Radio Garowe reports.

Sheikh Abdirahman Ibrahim Ma’ow, governor of Hiran region, flew from Mogadishu Friday and landed in the city of Galkayo, located in the Puntland regional autonomy 750km north of Mogadishu.

Sheikh Ma'ow, Governor of Hiran region

From Galkayo, Hiran’s governor traveled by road south through districts in Mudug, Galgadud and Hiran regions before arriving in Beletwein, provincial capital of Hiran.

Somali government forces tightened security in and around Beletwein in anticipation of the governor’s arrival. An armed convoy escorted Sheikh Ma’ow from Kala-Beyr junction in Hiran to the town of Beletwein, where he urged supporters to uphold the peace and to defend Shari'ah law.

Sheikh Ma’ow has spent the past three months in Mogadishu, where he held meetings with Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmake, and other government leaders.

He was not in Beletwein when former Somali Security Minister Omar Hashi was killed in a deadly suicide bombing among scores of civilians and soldiers at a Beletwein hotel two months ago.

It is not clear what the return of Sheikh Ma’ow will mean in Beletwein, where Somali government forces control the eastern part of town while the western neighborhoods are controlled by insurgent fighters loyal to Al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam.

During the Ethiopian intervention that ended in Jan. 2009, Sheikh Ma’ow was the leader of Islamist factions in Hiran region.

But since the election of Sheikh Sharif as Somali president earlier this year, loyalties have been broken and Sheikh Ma’ow sided with President Sheikh Sharif’s interim government, angering local insurgents who accuse Sheikh Sharif of being a Western puppet.

Tensions are high in Beletwein where insurgents threw hand grenades at the residence of the former mayor and the central police station last week.

Also Friday, Somali government forces raided a Beletwein house where they reportedly found bomb-making materials and hand grenades. No one was arrested, but security officials said the house was used by insurgents to make bombs.

Source: Garowe Online

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