Somalia’s world-backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG) on Saturday announced a three-day mourning for the death of the country’s Youth and Sports minister, Suleyban Olad Roble, who died late on Friday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from injuries he sustained during the December 3rd suicide attack on a graduation ceremony in Mogadishu.
“On behalf of the Somali government, and all of Somalia, I would like to express our deepest sympathies to Suleyban Olad Roble’s family, friends and colleagues,” said Dahir Mahmoud Guelleh, Minister of Information said in a statement of which Newsblaze.com obtained a copy on Saturday.
“He was a fine man and an excellent minister, who dedicated his life to working towards peace and reconciliation in Somalia. We will miss him and we will remember him.”
“Saleyban Olad Roble’s death means that Somalia has now lost four Ministers to the barbarism of Al Shabaab on 3 December, as well as the many young Somali graduates who were murdered that day. Al Shabaab represents nothing but slaughter and repression to the people of Somalia.”
“As we mourn for the loss of yet another brave and dedicated Somali Minister, and as we begin the second year of the national unity government, let us all strive together to rid our beautiful country of the senseless brutality of these extremists, and work together for a stable, peaceful and prosperous Somalia.” The information minister said in his statement.
Since January last year, the Somali government has lost five prominent ministers, three law makers, two military and police generals and other officials who were killed in suicide explosions and targeted assassinations in and outside the restive capital Mogadishu where 1.5 million civilians fled from their homes over the past three years.
