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BFF-21
SOMALIA-UNREST
Nine civilians killed in Somalia revenge attack: police
MOGADISHU, June 15, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Nine civilians were executed by a
local militia in war-torn Somalia after the killing of a policeman by the
Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab, police said Saturday.
The revenge attack on Friday just outside Galkayo — one of the most
developed cities in the centre of the country — targeted the Rahanweyn clan,
several of whose members are suspected of being Shabaab fighters.
“This was a horrible incident, a gruesome killing against nine unarmed
innocent civilians in southern Galkayo. All of the civilians belong to one
clan and the gunmen shot them dead in one location a few minutes after
suspected Shabaab gunmen killed” a policeman, Mohamed Abdirahman, a local
police official said.
“This is an unacceptable act and we will bring those perpetrators to
justice,” said Hussein Dini, a traditional elder.
“Their killing cannot be justified. It seems that the merciless gunmen were
retaliating for the security official who they believe was killed by Al-
Shabaab gunmen belonging to the clan of the victims.”
Witnesses told local media that the victims were rounded up from the
streets or their homes and then shot dead on the outskirts of Galkayo.
Local officials have in the past fingered the Rahanweyn clan for fomenting
instability in the region and supplying fighters to the Shabaab.
The local militia which staged the revenge attack are from the Saad
Habargidir, a sub-clan of the Hawiye group which is dominant in the southern
part of the city.
Galkayo, situated about 600 kilometres (380 miles) north of the capital
Mogadishu, straddles the frontier with the self-proclaimed autonomous regions
of Puntland and Galmudug.
The city has been the scene of violent clashes between forces of the two
regions in recent years and also witnessed violence between the two rival
clans occupying its northern and southern districts.
BSS/AFP/ARS/1826 hrs