Ethiopia hands over suspect in Somaliland murders

HARGEISA, Somalia, Oct 24 (Reuters) – Ethiopia has extradited to Somaliland a man accused of murdering a British couple teaching in the breakaway enclave and of masterminding the killing of another foreigner, an official said on Sunday.

Richard Eyeington, 62, who was headmaster at the Sheikh Secondary School, and his wife Enid, 61, were shot dead in October last year while watching television in their sitting room at their residence in the school compound.

The shooting, following the murder of award-winning Italian aid worker Annalena Tonelli in the same month, shattered the enclave’s reputation as a haven of peace in lawless Somalia.

Somaliland Interior Minister Ismail Aden Osman said the Ethiopian government extradited Mohamed Ali Esse Yusuf three days ago.

“Mr Yusuf is accused of personally killing the two British teachers, Mr and Mrs Eyeington … in their home at the Sheikh Secondary School,” Osman told reporters.

He said Yusuf was also accused of organising the killing of a Kenyan-born aid worker in March this year.

Osman said Yusuf had fled to the Somali capital Mogadishu and then later emerged in neighbouring country Djibouti. He declined to comment on how Yusuf got to Ethiopia and the subsequent extradition process.

Somaliland, which covers the northwest of Somalia, declared independence from the rest of the Horn of Africa country in 1991 but is not internationally recognised.