Gunmen Shoot Dead Somali Lawmaker

Gunmen shot and killed a Somali lawmaker in the northern breakaway state of Puntland, where fighting between political and clan groups is on the rise recently, officials said Wednesday.

Security officials in Galkayo said Abdurahman Ahmed Haji was shot late Tuesday by men with handguns in front of the gate of his house.

"Two men approached the lawmaker's car and then opened fire on him as he was entering his house. One of the gunmen shot him three times before escaping," local security official Mohamed Jama told Agence France Presse.

"He was rushed to hospital where he died in the emergency ward soon after arriving. They shot him brutally in the mouth and chest," said Abdiwahab Dhamuke, another lawmaker and close friend.

Galkayo, which straddles the border between Puntland and the self-proclaimed separate region of Galmudug in central Somalia, has seen recent clashes between rival political or clan groups.

Earlier this month at least 21 people were killed in two days of heavy fighting in the Galkayo area.

Somalia is the country hardest hit by the Horn of Africa's worst drought in decades, with nearly half its 10 million people in need of humanitarian aid.

The worst affected areas are south of Galkayo, in southern and central Somalia, which hardline Shebab rebels largely control.

The United Nations has declared several areas of the country as famine zones, and repeated a warning Wednesday that 750,000 people faced dying of starvation in the next four months.