Tens of thousands riot in Mogadishu in eruption of anger over food prices

By Mohamed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu
Tuesday, 6 May 2008

Troops have fired into tens of thousands of rioting Somalis, killing two people in the latest eruption of anger over high food prices in Africa, witnesses said.

In the capital Mogadishu, protesters marched against the refusal of traders to accept old 1,000-shilling notes, blaming them and a growing number of counterfeiters for rising food costs.

Many of the protesters wielded thick sticks, and some hurled stones at cars and buses. Hundreds of shops and restaurants in southern Mogadishu closed their doors for fear of looting. Dr Dahir Dhere said that a man injured in the protests died in hospital.

One of the protesters, Abdinur Farah, said he was marching with his uncle, his uncle's two wives and six children in southern Mogadishu when government troops opened fire. He said his uncle was hit and died before they could get him to the hospital. "He was just peacefully expressing his feelings," said Mr Farah. "It is saddening that the very government which is supposed to support him killed him."

Other witnesses said four people were wounded and several more injured in the violence.

In Mogadishu, the price of a kilogram of corn meal has risen from 12 cents (6p) in January to 25 cents. Another staple, rice, has gone up in that time from $26 to $47.50 for a 50kg sack. Food prices also have been affected by the plummeting Somali shilling, which lost nearly half its value this year, dropping from 17,000 shillings to the US dollar to 30,000 amid growing insecurity and a market clogged with counterfeit notes.

This Horn of Africa nation has been in turmoil for decades and without a functioning government since the dictator Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991. Over the past year, thousands of civilians have been killed in fighting between Islamist insurgents and a UN-sponsored transitional government supported by troops from neighbouring Ethiopia.

The UN food security unit warned last week that half of Somalia's seven million population faces famine. It blamed an enduring drought as well as soaring food prices. Food protests have also erupted in three other African countries, including Senegal, whose President, Abdoulaye Wade, called for the UN to dismantle its Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). He said he had long called for the Rome-based organisation to be transferred to Africa.

"This time, I'm going further: it must be eliminated," he said. Mr Wade suggested its assets be transferred to the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development, which he said was more efficient, and that the fund set up headquarters in Africa, "at the heart of the problem".

FAO officials would not comment.

Mr Wade's government has secured a deal with India that ensures Senegal's needs of 600,000 tonnes of rice a year are met for the next six years.