Mogadishu (RBC) Unidentified gunmen have today shot and killed renowned Somali artist Saado Ali Warsame near her hotel in Mogadishu around 12.00 pm local time, colleagues and family members said.
Mrs Warsame was shot and killed by heavily armed gunmen using a vehicle who waited in front of the Ambassador Hotel at the busy Maka al Mukarama road where she had resided.
The gunmen soon left the murder scene as they realized that they have shot the woman legislator.
MP Abdullahi Jama who was insuide the hotel at the time of the attack confirmed the death of Saado Ali Warsame and her driver who was also shot by the gunmen.
“The armed men started shooting the car which Mrs Saado Ali Warsame was inside upon her arrival at the back door of the hotel. They have shot both MP Saado Ali Warsame and her driver,” MP Jama said.
He blamed the attack on the anti-government elements saying that the aim of the attack is to create fear and force the parliamentarians to flee from the country.
No group yet claimed the attack, but the Al Qaeda-linked militant group Al Shabab earlier vowed to continue targeting MPs and government officials.
Mrs Saado Ali Warsame is a well-known singer in Somalia. She has left the county in 1990s as civil wars broke out in Somalia, but she returned in 2012 after new president was elected as she joined the country’s first permanent parliament.