By Mustafa Haji Abdinur
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Wary of possible attempts by demonstrators to regroup and voice opposition to a ban on the sale of the mild narcotic leaf khat, Islamist authorities announced a 9pm to 6am curfew in Mogadishu.
"We have imposed the curfew for security reasons because we see more people are creating violence and that is unbearable," said Sheikh Abdullahi Moalim Nahar Abu Uteyba, security chief for Banadir region, in which the city sits.
"The curfew will be in place until things have changed," he told reporters.
"Anybody caught breaking the curfew will be face punishment."
The step came after Islamis gunment fired on the raucous crowd of about 60 khat vendors, many of them women, protesting the ban in Mogadishu's southern Black Sea neighborhood.
"We were demonstrating against the Islamic courts' ban on the sale of khat that hurts the livelihoods of many people," protestor Nur Aden Wajis said.
"They opened fire on us," he told AFP.
Witnesses said at least one person, a teenage boy, was killed and three others wounded, one of hem seriously.
"The Islamic militias tried to disperse angry protestors by opening fire into the air, but some of them must have lowered their guns because the boy and three others were shot," said Black Sea resident Ali Mohamed Dashane.
"The boy died later when he reached hospital," he told AFP.
The crowd reacted by setting a number of tires ablaze, sending plumes of black smoke into the air, witnesses said and many protestors vowed to continue their demonstration overnight, prompting the Islamists to impose the curfew.
Vendor Ahmed Abdullahi Kahin complained that the Islamists were being unfair in their blanket ban on khat, which many Somali men chew for its narcotic effect.
"They have created no alternative work for us and only imposed harsh laws," he told AFP.
Since seizing Mogadishu in June, the Islamists have expanded their territory to include most of southern and central Somalia where they have imposed strict Sharia law, banning numerous popular pastimes and entertainments.
In addition to prohibiting khat, they have banned tobacco smoking in the southern port of Kismayo as well as live music, cinema halls and photo shops in most areas.
It is the first time they have impose a curfew in Mogadishu, a city which was infamous for lawlessness, but the Islamists have managed to restore a semblance of peace.
The Islamists are now girding for war against the country's weak transitional government and fears are high that conflict may engulf the Horn of Africa region.
Source: AFP, Nov 18, 2006