Saturday, February 13, 2010
The Somali Sports Minister Suleyman Olad Roble who was being treated at a Saudi hospital has died from his serious wounds late on Friday, the Somali government confirms here.
Somalia’s acting Sports Minister Khadijo Mohamed Diriye told reporters in Mogadishu that the minister died after more than two months in a coma at a hospital in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
The minister was among many wounded in the December 3rd suicide attack that rocked a graduation ceremony at Mogadishu’s Shamow hotel which killed 25 people including ministers, doctors and students and wounded more than 50 others.
The dead minister’s brother Abdullahi Olad Roble told the state-run Radio Mogadishu that Suleyman had undergone the latest surgery Thursday and since then his condition was quite serious.
Born in Mogadishu in 1963, Suleyman Olad Roble is survived by two wives and four children ; two sons and two daughters.
The Somali Football Federation president Mr. Said Mahmoud Nur said in a press conference in Mogadishu on Friday evening that the SFF was shocked by the minister’s death.
“On behalf of the Somali football fraternity, I am sending my heart-felt condolences to all Somalis and particularly to his family, wives and children and I pray to Allah that his soul may rest in peace,” Said Mahmoud Nur said.
Since last year, four Somali government ministers, law makers and other government officials have been killed in different Islamist suicide attacks and targeted assassinations.
Source: African Press Agency