2 Killed And Scores Injured In Hargeysa Demonstrations

Hargeysa, Somaliland, 3 May 2008 (SL Times) - Two people were killed in last Sunday’s street demonstrations which rocked the capital, Hargeysa, and virtually brought the city centre and traffic to a halt for more than an hour. Angry crowds of youth from Ahmed Dagah district in Hargeysa fought full street pitch battles with local police and special riot police brought in to quash the demonstration and to disperse the angry crowds from the streets.

Things turned ugly when some protestors overpowered one policeman from his rifle and began to fireback at the security forces who where according to some reports firing live rounds at and above the heads of protestors some of whom were pelting the police with stones and sling shots.

One of the dead was Farhan Ismail Jama, a youth under his twenties was hit in the head with a fatal shot and died on the spot. A second unidentified man in his mid twenties lay dead 100 metres from the spot Farhan was shot. Later in the day, hospital staff at Hargeysa general hospital confirmed that more than 10 people received medical attention for non-critical gun shot wounds, mostly, these were men in their youth and half a dozen policemen were also treated at the hospital for minor stone related injuries thrown at them by the demonstrating youth.

Last Sunday’s unrest was sparked by angry students and youth from Ahmed Dagah district, in Hargeysa, began demonstrating outside their district’s municipal branch offices to voice their anger at local city authority’s proposals to carve out of Ahmed Dagah district new municipal wards which grouped together will form an additional new Hargeysa district which is to carry the name ‘Sheikh Umar Yusuf’ district.

Start of mayhem

The youth began to rampage Ahmed Dagah municipal district branch offices attacking local municipal staff and guards. The local authority guards and police from Iftin police station tried to contain the angry crowds, which by now numbered over 300 people, but were overwhelmed and ran for cover to save themselves.

The demonstrators began to make their way from Ahmed Dagah neighbourhood towards town centre. By the time the demonstrators reached the main bridge linking north and south sections of the capital, large number of reinforced police and number of contingencies of police in full riot gear were waiting nearby to disperse the demonstrators.

For more than an hour, police and demonstrators battled it out and quickly the clash spread to main centre of town. Barrage of gunfire could be heard coming from centre of town and the smouldering smoke of car tyres set on fire by marauding youth could be seen burning from afar.

The angry crowds were met and spoken to by government ministers and traditional leaders who eventually convinced them to stop all violence and unrest and informed the protestors that the local city authority’s decision to create new districts out of Ahmed Dagah neighbourhood has been quashed by the ministry of Interior and that without their consent and approval, plans to rename and divide Ahmed Dagah district will not go ahead. Ministers that could be seen most prominent amidst the angry crowds was the Air & Transport minister, Mr Ali Waranade, who was using a loud handheld microphone speaker to address the crowds and the stone throwing youth to calm down and speak to him and their traditional leaders about their grievances in a peaceful manner.

During the day, the minister of interior, Mr Abdillahi Ismail (Iro), in a BBC world service Somali radio interview, the minister distanced himself and the government from having anything to do with the local authority’s decision to form new districts and rename parts of Ahmed Dagah district and said that 'the local authority did not have the legal jurisdiction to create or rename new districts and municipal wards and that only the council of ministers (cabinet) have the power to recommend such decisions which needs parliament’s endorsement to become law'.

Source: Somaliland Times