On Friday morning in Baidoa, gunfire erupted between southwest security forces and clan militia forces loyal to a group of opposition candidates, but no injuries were recorded.
The opposition candidates and the Southwest authorities have recently been locked in a bitter impasse.
President Abdiaziz Laftagaren’s term was extended by the Southwest Parliament three years ago; it now expires on December 19, 2023. The opposition, however, was against the president’s term extension.
The Federal Government of Somalia expressed concern for the bloody altercation that was reported in Baidoa and asked the political parties to settle their disagreements peacefully and without violence.
The worst-affected regions by the drought are in the southwest states, namely in the districts of Baidoa and Buur Hakaba, where cholera and measles epidemics as well as rising malnutrition and mortality rates have reached emergency levels.
One of the worst-affected regions in Somalia by the drought is Baidoa, the state’s administrative center. People who have lost their means of subsistence owing to the drought visit relief camps every day in need of aid, according to UN organizations.
Nearly half of Somalia’s population, or more than 7.7 million people, are estimated by the U.N. to require humanitarian aid as a result of the drought.