[15] In a sharp rebuke, Somalia's internal security ministry released a statement saying that Mukhtar Robow was not eligible to run for the regional elections.

Mukhtar Robow was officially cleared by the South West State Electoral Commission to contest in the December elections despite early protest by the Federal government seeking to have him barred.

The group said it fears the government was planning to rig the election since the new date is not favourable for international observers as most of them will then have left Somalia for the end of the year festivities.

Some 150 elite Somali forces, armed with DShK rifles, were deployed to Baidoa to physically block Robow from accessing the election venue.

[18] Somali lawmakers have written a protest letter to the AU Commission in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian government and the UN complaining about the conduct of AMISOM.

[19] The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Somalia, Nicholas Haysom wrote to the Somali government on 30 December 2018, requesting details of the legal basis for the arrest of Robow, as well as calling for investigations into the deaths of protesters following his detention.

The order comes days after the official, Nicholas Haysom, raised concerns about the action of Somalia's UN-backed security services in the recent violent episodes that left several people dead.

The U.N. Security Council is expressing regret at Somalia's decision to expel a U.N. envoy who questioned the arrest of an extremist group defector-turned-political candidate.