Islamist fighters opened fire in the direction of protesters in Somalia’s southern port of Kismayo on Monday, wounding at least two, witnesses said.
The shooting came as several thousand Somalis took to the streets shouting anti-Islamist slogans, burning tyres and throwing stones in protests against the Islamist takeover of the city overnight.
A 13-year-old boy was shot dead while protesting, while two other people were injured, witnesses said, amid sketchy reports from Somalia’s third largest city.
Residents of Somalia’s third biggest city, which lies near the Kenyan border, said some arriving Islamist fighters had stirred up an already tense atmosphere by burning the Somali national flag and raising an Islamic one.
That set off protests, after the town had previously been peaceful since the Islamists rode in on battle-wagons to take Kismayo without firing a shot, they said.
”I witnessed the Somali flag being ripped apart and burned. This is unacceptable. It will cause a big problem,” said Mahad Abdullahi, a resident of Kismayo.
A Reuters witness saw thousands of men and women pouring on to the streets, shouting ”We don’t want the Islamic Courts” and tossing stones at trucks used by Islamist fighters.
Roads were blocked with stones and burning tyres, she said.
The move into Kismayo extends the Islamists’ grip after they seized the capital Mogadishu in June from United States-backed warlords and advanced across a swathe of the south.
Somalia’s interim government regards the takeover of Kismayo as a breach of an agreement it reached with the Islamists, during talks in Khartoum, to maintain a ceasefire and stop any territorial expansion. — Reuters