Two people died on Saturday following protests in Hargeisa, the capital of the self-declared state of Somaliland in northwest Somalia, the BBC reported on Monday.

A child and a policemen were killed in the incident, which took place when a crowd of people protesting the arrest of Sultan Mohamed Abdulkadir of the Idagale sub-clan of the Issakwere blocked the main road to the airport, the BBC report said.

More than 60 people were arrested and Somaliland president Mohamed Ibrahim Egal, returning from an official visit to Ethiopia, was forced to take a circuitous route, it said. Sultan Mohamed Abdulkadir was arrested on his return from Djibouti, where he attended the Somali peace conference.

He is an elected member of Somalia's transitional assembly.

The Somaliland authorities strongly opposed the Djibouti process and have arrested people who attended the conference.