Relieved Somalians spilled out into the streets in the war-scared capital in the thousands to celebrate the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops. About 3,000 people from different districts marched through the streets on Friday waving twigs as a sign of peace chanting slogans appealing for peace and converged at the city's main football stadium, which only two days ago (till Thursday morning) was a base for Ethiopian troops.
Thousands of people were killed in the Somali capital of Mogadishu alone by the Ethiopian troops who were backing the weak ruling UN-backed government.
The Council of Correction and Reconciliation, an influential group of Islamic clerics, not allied to any of the Islamic groups fighting for power in Somalia, had organized the Friday rally. Council head Sheik Bashir Ahmed Salad said that with the Ethiopians gone, Somalis should now focus on peace. "It is high time that all Somalis solved their differences through dialogue and in a peaceful manner,'' AP quoted Salad as telling the crowd.
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But the Somali people complained that the Ethiopian army was abusive and heavy-handed.
Sheik Abdiqadir Ali Omar, a member of the Council of Islamic Courts, called Friday for Islamic fighters to lay down their arms and help rebuild what has been destroyed. He added that the displaced people can now return home.
The UN Security Council on Friday unanimously adopted a resolution expressing its intention to establish a UN force in Somalia, but put off a final decision for several months to assess the volatile situation and work toward strengthening the small African Union force deployed in the capital. The approved resolution renewed the mandate of the African Union force for six months and urged African nations to strengthen it from the current 2,600 to the 8,000 originally authorized.