MOGADISHU, Dec 14 : At least 11 people were killed in Somalia’s city of Baidoa in clashes between security forces and supporters of a former al Shabaab leader who is seeking election as a regional president, a military officer and an elder said on Friday.

Authorities arrested Mukhtar Robow on Thursday, accusing him of bringing Islamist militants and weapons back to Baidoa, the capital of South West region where he is running for president.

Robow supporters angered by his arrest clashed with police backed by Ethiopian peacekeeping forces in Baidoa, said Hussein Aden, a military officer in the city.

Baidoa elder Saleh Isak accused the authorities of seeking to install its own candidate as president of South West, the first of Somalia’s seven semi-autonomous regions to hold presidential elections in the coming months.

“Yesterday, 10 people died and today they killed a lawmaker,” Isak told Reuters by telephone.

 
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