The UN Secretary-General's special envoy for Somalia urged members of the split transitional government to exercise restraint last Thursday amid reports of militia movement in the town of Jowhar, where the president and the prime minister are based.
"I am concerned at the escalation of tensions in Jowhar and Mogadishu, and appeal for restraint from all parties whatever their differences," Francois Lonseny Fall, Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative for Somalia, said in a statement.