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by Luke Traynor
Liverpool, UK, 19 April 2008 - A GROUP has been set up to ease tensions between feuding tribes among Liverpool Somalians.
The murder of 17-year-old Ahmed Mohamed Ibrahim last month sent shockwaves through Toxteth, where most live.
The Liverpool Somalian Youth Council has just been set up to try to re-educate the growing number of teenagers and young men turning to violence to settle disputes.
Initial meetings have been held in Granby police station, and the group is seeking funding to expand.
Organiser Abdi Mohamud, 21, said simmering tribal differences were being brought from their native homelands to Liverpool.
Up to three factions have well-established rivalries which has turned to violence over the past 12 months.
Members of the Somalian community said there had been a series of fist fights in Toxteth and Granby.
Mr Mohamud said: “It’s been bubbling under for a while, and Ibrahim’s murder was the final straw
“Things have been happening in the community because people are divided into tribes.
“There was a shooting in an office in Granby Street around a year ago. It’s people coming to this country with a small-minded concept.
“The people coming to this group are aged 17-24 and we hope to address issues like education and health.”
The group will be holding events which will include guest Somalian speakers, and say they are to start door-to-door leafleting to publicise the drive.
Last month, Ahmed Ibrahim was brutally battered to death by an armed gang in Sefton Park.
The teenager had fled his native Somalia to come to the city nine months ago and was emotionally reunited with his mother Asiya in Liverpool.
Ahmed was studying at Liverpool Community Centre in Duke Street and worked part-time at medical nutrition firm SHS International, at Wavertree Technology Park, in the bakery section of the company.
luketraynor@liverpoolecho.co.uk 0151 472 2486
Source: The Liverpool Echop
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