Second town fall to pro government forces fighting to topple Mogadishu .
Somalia’s hitherto moderate militia are emerging as the latest challenge to the long list of problems the country has faced conducting elections.
On Wednesday, militia group — Alhu Sunna Wal Jamaa (ASWJ) — clashed with government forces in Galmudug state, one of the regions yet to complete its run of elections for the Senate.
Photos the group shared showed they had seized some government equipment as they entered towns such as Guri-el. It was unclear how far the battle could go, but electoral disagreements were being fronted by the group’s leaders as the reason they were challenging the government.
ASWJ was not always government enemy. In the last four years, the group was influential in helping to route Al Shabaab out of major regions in Galmudug, allowing for the conduct of elections and formation of a new government early last year. However, the group says it was shortchanged on powers sharing arrangements promised by the federal government. Some of its members were targeted as others fled into exile. It is just that some local clans subscribe to the movement and want their leaders involved in the leadership.
The chaos erupted as Somalia surmounted one more hurdle: It completed the senate elections for Somaliland region. On Wednesday, 46 delegates, half of them drawn from the communities native to Somaliland, while the other formed by the Somaliland clan elders in the capital, voted for 11 senators.
Three out of the 11 senators were women, pushing the numbers of elected women so far closer to the 30 percent quota granted by the clan-based indirect electoral system agreed for this 2020/2021 election.
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