Al-Shabaab militants yesterday destroyed business billboards with non-Arabic scripts at Eelasha Biyaha Area, a strip of land in the southern outskirts of Mogadishu, where most people who fled the wars in the Somali capital had set up shelter and businesses.
The masked fighters stated that businesses in the affected area were ordered to remove English and Somali lettering from their billboards by September 30 of the Muslim month of Shawal, which coincides with September 28.
Failure to comply with the order landed at least 12 prominent traders in al-Shabaab custody, according to residents who contacted Kulmiye, a popular broadcaster in Mogadishu.
“The hostility against the merchants who resisted removing English and Somali scripts from their billboards inculcates fear in the business community,” a resident, who preferred anonymity said.
The order to use only Arabic on the signposts was given last week and appeared very unpopular. Other recent unpopular measures by al-Shabaab at Eelasha Biyaha area include the removal of the Somali flag from schools and the raising of the Islamist movement’s black banner.
Meanwhile, over a hundred families with scant belongings arrived in South Mogadishu on Monday. The large group settled between the main bases of the Burundian contingency of the AU’s Amisom peacekeepers in the Mogadishu, the former Somali National University Campus and the former Kabka factory.
The choice was obviously influenced by security reason and availability of open space. The arrivals testified to have come from Bay and Lower Shabelle, two regions declared by the United Nations as famine zones but fall under the strict rule of al-Shabaab, the radical Islamist group.
Al-Shabaab leaders continue to prevent the main humanitarian agencies, including the UN bodies from delivering humanitarian assistance.
Source: The Monitor.co.ug
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