Garowe Online, citing government sources, reports that Somalia’s Interior Minister, Hussein Aideed, has formally taken over Radio Mogadishu and the building that used to house the Somali Information Ministry. Aideed transfered Radio Mogadishu to Sahra Abdiqadir, the Somali Government’s State Minister for Information. Minister Aideed said his supporters protected Radio Mogadishu during the civil war years and now willingly transfered the radio station to the interim government. Aideed said Radio Mogadishu would now function as the government’s mouthpiece and the name will be changed to the Voice of the Somali Republic. Radio Mogadishu and the Information Ministry building survived much of the looting from the civil war years. The radio station was most recently under the control of the Islamic Courts movement that withdrew from Mogadishu last week.
(Source: Garowe Online/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)