Official: Somali state minister for defense nabbed in Uganda

Somali minister for defense seized in Uganda

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Gunmen seized Somalia’s state minister for defense Tuesday during a trip to the Ugandan capital, a Somali government spokesman said.

Minister Yusuf Mohamed Siad was picked up as he walked out of a mosque in Kampala, Somali government spokesman Sheik Abdirisaq Qeylow said.

“We are investigating,” Qeylow told The Associated Press. “All we know so far is that he was taken away.”

Qeylow said Siad was kidnapped, but the circumstances were not immediately clear and the claim could not be independently confirmed. Calls to authorities in Uganda were not immediately returned.

Somalia has been ravaged by violence and anarchy since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, then turned on each other. The al-Shabab insurgent group, which has foreign fighters in its ranks, operates openly in the capital and seeks to overthrow the government and impose a strict form of Islam in Somalia.

Kidnappings for ransom are common in Somalia, where the government controls just a few blocks of the capital. Uganda provides many of the troops for a 5,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia.