Aidid's Wife, 4 Children On Welfare In Canada

TORONTO - The wife of Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid collects welfare and spends her days in a sparsely furnished townhouse, often watching Cable News Network, a Canadian newspaper said today.

Khadiga Gurhan, 35, the second wife of Aidid, has lived in a middle-class townhouse in London, Ontario, with her four young children for two months, the Toronto Sun said. She entered Canada as a refugee four years ago.

Her husband is on the run from U.N. forces in Somalia.

She married Aidid in 1984, and for the next four years they lived in India, where her husband was posted as his country's ambassador. She left Somalia for Canada because she feared for her and her family's safety.

"I don't like to live on welfare. It's shameful," Gurhan said. "But my husband has no money. He's a rebel."