Somalia, 27 September 2025 – Former Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has claimed that the armed clashes at Warta-Nabadda Police Station were an assassination attempt targeting him and other opposition figures.
Sharif made the remarks during a press conference he held on Friday night, where he also denounced what he described as the arbitrary detention of more than 20 elders.
The former president explained that they had gone to the station to secure the release of an elder who had been arrested, but instead came under fire in what he called an attempt on their lives.
“You all witnessed in recent day how elders were killed, beaten, and dragged. When their families came to us and we went to visit them, we were directly attacked, and there was an attempt to kill us. God saved us,” Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said.
He added that although they repeatedly called for restraint and urged that no shots be fired, they were met with live bullets.
The incident Shariff was referring to, took place on Wednesday after members of the opposition group Salvation Forum, accompanied by armed personnel, went to the Warta-Nabadda station, where a gunfight broke out between them and government forces.
The Federal Government had earlier characterized the clashes at Warta-Nabadda as a coup attempt allegedly orchestrated by members of the Salvation Forum.