A grenade attack killed four people and wounded six others watching a foreign film in the western town of Baidoa in the latest flare-up in chaotic Somalia, residents said on Friday.
Militant Islamists, who have been fighting the Horn of Africa nation’s government, are opposed to Western and Indian films, which they say promote immorality in the mainly Muslim nation of 10-million people.
During their six-month rule of most of south Somalia last year, they frequently broke up public viewings of films.
”The hand grenade was thrown at a video show in Baidoa late last night [Thursday night],” said resident Mohamed Ali. He did not know who the attackers were.
”Four people died and six were wounded. The video show was full of people watching an Indian movie at the time.”
Thursday night’s grenade attack was the latest in a wave of violence, which also included a major attack on Ethiopian troops in Mogadishu, since the postponement of a national peace conference that had been scheduled to start on Thursday.
Ethiopia has sent troops into Somalia to shore up the government against the Islamist threat.
At an Ethiopian military base in Mogadishu, Somali government officials showed journalists a large haul of guns and ammunition they had dug up from a garage in western Mogadishu.
”The world is fighting an enemy called Aids — here we have no Aids, our enemy is weapons,” said Salad Ali Jelle, Deputy Defence Minister, after he handed over the weapons to African Union peacekeepers.
They included anti-aircraft missiles, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades and missiles.
About 1 600 Ugandan troops are in Somalia as a vanguard to an intended 8 000-strong African Union peacekeeping mission known as Amisom.
”Some of these weapons are unique in Africa,” said Amosim’s Major Damulira, who asked to be identified by his surname only.
”To me it’s an indicator that some extremism is quietly creeping into Africa. This is a challenge for all of us to stand up against the spread of extremism.” — Reuters