www.shabelle.net/news/ne3203.htmSomalia: Government police snitch people’s mobile phones and money, witnesses say
Aweys Osman Yusuf
Mogadishu 02, July.07 ( Sh.M.Network) - Some of the government’s police forces around Mogadishu’s Bakara market forcefully took cell phones and money from pedestrians, according to witnesses in the area.
“I was one of the people who got lined up and robbed by the police. They took my mobile phone and some money I had,” said a man who only gave his name as Ali.
He said a group of government police stopped people entering Bakara market and searching their and taking all valuable items they had.
“Normally, I am very afraid of the areas the government troops are staying because they either kill you when an incident happens near them and you walking there or they mug you if they have the chance,” he said.
Witnesses reported that the incident took place around 5: 30 A.M. local time when most Somalis go to their businesses and work.
Overnight gun battle
Insurgents launched their habitual nightly attacks on Somalia’s police forces stationed at Hodan district, south of the capital on Sunday night amid curfew on the Somali capital, Mogadishu, for the second week in row.
Escalations of violence and nightly bombings on government and Ethiopian bases have been familiar since Somalia imposed the night-time curfew on the volatile city in early last week.
Officials laid the blame on Islamists whom they said are still active in the capital.
Huge bomb explosions rocked Mogadishu the night before when President Yusuf and a large number of his supporters attended a ceremony marking the country’s 47 years of independence from Italy.
The bloody insurgency in Somalia claimed the lives of more civilians since the ouster of the Union of Islamic Courts in December last year.
