Thousands of Somalis on Wednesday demanded an end to deadly violence that has rocked their lawless capital, denouncing a United States-backed warlord alliance that has been battling Islamic militia.
More than 2 000 Mogadishu residents rallied to call for a full halt to the bloodiest fighting the city has seen in 15 years as the two factions continued to observe a tenuous, unsigned truce appealed for by elders, witnesses said.
The demonstration, held at a football stadium controlled by Islamic courts, was off-limits to members of the rival Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT), but was attended by civic leaders and Muslim clerics.
“The people of Mogadishu and the courts were equally attacked by the so-called alliance in the recent fighting,” said Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, chairperson of an umbrella group that represents the city’s 11 Sharia law courts.
“Both were victims of aggression and suffered badly,” he told the crowd, accusing foreigners of fomenting violence by backing the alliance, which was created in February with US backing to curb the courts’ growing influence.
“The hostilities in Mogadishu were caused by outsiders who don’t care about the wellbeing of Somalia,” Ahmed said of the eight days of fierce fighting that erupted on May 7, killing at least 130 people and wounding more than 300.
“The alliance is not a national institution but the creation of a foreign country,” he said to cheers from the crowd that gathered under tight security provided by Islamic militia in southern Mogadishu’s Howlwadag neighbourhood.
Ahmed did not name the country in question, but his comments were a clear reference to the US, which has been accused of funding the alliance as part of its broader war on terrorism.
The US has declined to comment on its backing of the alliance, but US officials have told Agence France-Presse the alliance has received US money and is one of several Somali groups Washington is working with to contain what it sees as the rise of radical Islam in Somalia.
US and alliance officials say the Islamic courts and their militia are harbouring foreign fighters and Muslim extremists, including members of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network, a charge denied by clerics. — AFP