The arrest of Mukhtar Robow in an area where al Shabaab militants retain a presence after a long civil war heightened tension between Somalia’s central government and semi-autonomous regions where elections are scheduled over the coming months. The Internal Security Ministry in Mogadishu said its forces had arrested Robow on the suspicion that he had brought militants and weapons back to the southern city of Baidoa, the capital of South West region where he is running for president. The ministry asked Robow to denounce “his ideology of terrorism…and support the federal government of Somalia”.
