Somali youths, preacher seek Egypt-style revolt
By ABDULKADIR KHALIF, Nation Correspondent in Mogadishu
Monday, February 14, 2011
MOGADISHU, February 14 – Hundreds of Somali youths and a preacher are seeking an Egypt style solution to force an end to 20 years of chaos and lack of a stable government.
Waving Somali flags, the youths staged a demonstration at a key road between Banadir and Km 4 junctions in South Mogadishu on Sunday.
They protested the seemingly endless war between the pro-government forces and the jihadists (holy warriors) of al Shabaab, the fanatical militant group vehemently challenging the Transitional Federal Government.
The daring youths gathered at Km 4 area, an important control point manned by the peacekeepers serving the AU Mission in Somalia, Amisom.
One of the organisers, Mr Jama Said Qorshel, told journalists they were committed to daily protests till their objectives are achieved.
“We are not going to abandon until we achieve our anti-war goals,” said Qorshel.
Although the protest ended peacefully, the youth did not hide the facts that they had been motivated by the uprising in Tunisia and Egypt that ended the rules of the former leaders Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak.
Arrests
The protesters blamed the warring sides of employing youths in armed battles.
The TFG’s Security Police, better known as PS, apprehended seven organisers after the protests announced on Saturday. However, the move did not deter others from marching.
Elsewhere, a spiritual leader of Somalia's Islamist Shabaab rebels called Monday for popular Egypt- and Tunisia-style revolts to topple the country's Western-backed transitional government.
Sheikh Jama Abdusalam said such uprisings would rid the war-wracked country of a government that he accused of serving Western interests.
"I am urging the people to carry out Egyptian- and Tunisian-style uprisings in Somalia," Abdusalam told Alfurqaan Radio, a Shabaab mouthpiece.
"It is good to take up such revolution against all governments that serve the interest of Western countries," he said. "We have to follow Muslims who are fighting for their dignity and religion in Tunisia and Egypt."
Authority
The Shabaab control 80 per cent of southern and central Somalia and their bloody onslaught against President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed's government has confined the administration to a few blocks in the capital Mogadishu.
Somalia's transitional government was formed in neighboring Kenya in 2004 but has been unable to exert its authority across the country and survives under the protection of a contingent of African Union forces.
Another Shabaab imam, Sheikh Abdulfatah Aweys Abu Hamsa, called for more attacks on African Union soldiers.
"There is a need for a wider jihad against the crusaders who came to support the transitional government," Alfurqaan Radio quoted him as saying.
"We need to follow those who are crushing dictators. We need to remove the so-called leader imposed on us by outsiders," he said.
Somalia has lacked an effective central government since the eruption of a civil war after the ouster of president Mohamed Siad Barre 20 years ago. The current government's mandate is to expire in August.
(Additional reporting by AFP.)
