Mogadishu riots over food prices
Latest violence in Somalia follows killing of two people in protests over price rise.
Demonstrators accused food traders of causing a sharp rise in inflation [AFP] |
More than 10,000 people gathered in the southern neighbourhood of Madina on Tuesday and marched towards the main Bakara trading district, where rally leaders addressed the crowd, an AFP correspondent said.
No casualties were immediately reported, but on Monday two people were killed in protests, witnesses said. The crowd briefly dispersed after the firing.
“We can no longer ignore what is happening and we must respond to the best of our ability.”
On Monday thousands of demonstrators poured onto the streets to vent their anger at printers of fake money and unscrupulous traders whose preference for US dollars over the Somali shilling is helping to push inflation to record levels.
In Video |
Rioters set tyres on fire and smashed shop windows in the trading district, drawing a fierce response from Somali security personnel that left at least two demonstrators dead, witnesses said.
Although there are no official inflation figures, UN monitors say cereal prices have increased by between 110 and 375 per cent in the past year as central Somalia has endured its worst drought in recent memory.
The dollar is now equivalent to 25,000 Somali shillings, up from an average of 4,000 shillings in 1991, when the country descended into lawlessness after the sacking of Mohammed Siad Barre, the president.
Hundreds of shops and restaurants were forced to close by Tuesday’s protests [AFP] |
Since the Islamic Courts’ Union was ejected from power last year, more than a million people have become refugees.