Bodyguards attached to the Auditor general, Nur Farah opened fire on a car carrying Abbas near a checkpoint close to the palace. Senior Somali security member Mohamed Hassan told the German news agency that the minister's bodyguards had falsely identified Farah, who was travelling in a bulletproof vehicle, as a threat and there had been an exchange of gunfire.
The late minister was a former refugee who spent large parts of his life at a camp in Kenya.
He was the youngest member of Somalia's new cabinet. Somalia's information minister, Abdirahman Omar Osman, sent condolences over the death, calling Siraji a "brilliant and rising young star who showed commitment in serving his country".