Agence France-Presse report

Mogadishu, — Mohamed Farah Aideed, one of the warlords engaged in a bitter civil war for power in Somalia over the past five years, died during the night at his home here, his faction’s radio station announced Friday [2 August]. The radio said that Aideed died of a heart attack around 10:00 P.M. (1900 GMT) and that he would be buried Friday. It announced 30 days of mourning starting from Friday, with flags to be flown at half mast.

Reliable sources said Aidid’s heart attack was the result of gunshot wounds he suffered last week during fighting in the Medina district of south Mogadishu.

The radio said that Isse Mohammed Siad, a minister in the self-proclaimed government which Aidid formed in June last year, would take over in the interim as leader of the United Somali Congress/Somali National Alliance.

The radio station of Aidid’s rival, Ali Mahdi Mohamed, reported on July 26 that the general had been seriously wounded during fighting in the Medina district three days earlier. It said he had been hit in the intestines and that his life was in danger.

At the time, a senior aide to Aidid rapidly denied the report, claiming that the general was in “excellent health” and last Sunday [word indistinct] himself [word indistinct] a personal denial during an interview on his faction’s radio. Speaking on the occasion of ceremonies marking the birthday of the prophet Mohamed, Aidid had declared: “Wishes from the enemy cannot kill or wound me. I will die when my time runs out and when Allah wishes.”

But he failed to satisfy the demands of the media to appear in public for the first time since fighting broke out in Mogadishu in early July.

_{FBIS-AFR-96-150, 2 Aug. 1996, p. 4}