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| Africa Horn |
| Mogadishu's new mayor sworn in |
| 2007-05-06 |
| Mogadishu's new mayor has used his swearing-in ceremony to ask residents of Somalia's capital to hand in their weapons and help the country's fragile interim government. Mohamed Dheere - a warlord who has fought to gain control of the city for more than a decade - said in his speech on Friday that anyone who refused to disarm would be punished. "No weapons are allowed in the city," he said. "Anyone who violates this directive will be punished." He was sworn-in a mayor shortly after Somalia's interim government and its Ethiopian allies succeeded in imposing a state of relative calm on the east African nation's wartorn, seaside capital. Over the last month Somalia's government has cut a peace deal with rival tribal factions which ended some of the worst of the violence. At the same time, a major military offensive by the Ethiopian army succeeded in infliciting substantial damage on followers of the Islamic Courts Union - a well-armed opposition movement which briefly controlled Mogadishu and large parts of Somalia at the end of 2006. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 "No weapons are allowed in the city," he said. "Anyone who violates this directive will be punished." (Except me and mine of course) |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2007-05-06 16:22 |