Rioters attack ethnic Somalis in Kenyan capital
By Richard Lough
NAIROBI | Mon Nov 19, 2012 4:09pm EST
(Reuters) - Kenyan police fired tear gas to disperse rioters who attacked
ethnic Somalis in the Nairobi district known as "Little Mogadishu" on
Monday, hurling rocks and smashing windows after a weekend bomb attack there
killed nine people.
The violence coincided with the start of voter registration for a general
election in March, adding to security concerns ahead of the first national
polls since 2007 when a dispute over the results fuelled ethnic slaughter
that killed more than 1,200 people and forced some 300,000 from their homes.
Angry mobs broke into Somali homes and shops in anger at Sunday's attack on
a minibus which killed at least nine people in Nairobi's Eastleigh district
which is dominated by Somali Kenyans and their ethnic kin who have fled
fighting in Somalia.
Ethnic Somalis, some armed with machetes, fought back and hurled rocks at
their attackers who responded with sling shots and stones. Paramilitary
police fired volleys of teargas to prise the battling factions apart.
"We are trying to create a buffer zone so that people cannot cross over,"
Nairobi regional police commander Moses Ombati told reporters, pointing to a
road that he said formed a rough boundary between the two communities.
"These people are neighbors and business partners who need each other, so I
don't think it will last long," he said.
Gangs of looters ran amok as the security forces fought to quell the
violence. One Somali trader, who gave her name only as Hamdi for fear of
reprisal attacks, said she was worried the unrest would spread throughout
Eastleigh's rundown estates.
"I condemn anyone who carried out this heinous act," she said, referring to
Sunday's bomb attack. "It's affecting many innocent civilians and is causing
the Somali community to be targeted."
Authorities have blamed Somali militants and their sympathizers for grenade
and gun attacks in Kenya since Nairobi sent soldiers into neighboring
Somalia last year to drive out al-Shabaab rebels, an Islamist group with
links to al Qaeda.
Attacks have intensified since Kenyan forces, fighting under an African
Union banner, and Somali government troops routed al Shabaab from their last
major urban bastion, the Somali port of Kismayu last month and forced the
rebels to flee.
Two Kenyan soldiers were shot dead in the eastern town of Garissa, which is
a rear base for Kenya troops fighting in Somalia as part of the regional
African Union force.
"THEY SHOULD JUST CHILL"
In the Eastleigh district of the capital Nairobi, crowds poured through the
streets chanting "Somalis must go!", hurling rocks and smashing windows of
some Somali apartment blocks.
Rioters jeered police who fired warnings shots in the air, demanding the
government improve security in a district that has borne the brunt of the
grenade and gun attacks.
Streets in Eastleigh, a congested residential and business area, were strewn
with rocks and shattered glass. Shops shuttered their windows and most
business were closed in what is one of Nairobi's busiest trading centers.
People stood on rooftops while some ethnic Somalis gestured for assistance
through their windows.
"These Somalis are getting used to this. Every day there is a grenade
attack," said Evans, a non-Somali resident of the area wearing sandals and a
dirty t-shirt with a print of Che Guevara.
Children in school uniform and their parents ran from school after being
trapped in the unrest. Others ran with hands in air as police began
arresting suspects. At least a dozen Kenyan men lay face down in one truck.
Local businessman Godfrey Biketi who supplies meat to Eastleigh, urged his
fellow Kenyans to be calm.
"They should just chill. They're our neighbors," he said of the Somalis.
"Even our country is fighting a war in Somalia. Now our country is becoming
like theirs, it's not cool," he said.
The Muslim Human Rights Forum said that even if the suspects responsible for
Sunday's bombing were proven to be Somalis, it did not mean the whole
community was involved.
"The xenophobic attacks must be stopped at all costs lest they escalate to
unmanageable mayhem at grave costs to the nation," the group's chairman
Al-Amin Kimathi said.
(Additional reporting by Mahad Diriye; Writing by James Macharia; Editing by
Jon Hemming)
<
http://www.reuters.com/article/slideshow/idUSBRE8AI0RE20121119#a=6> Ethnic
Somalis hold weapons as they chant slogans against a rival group during the
second day of skirmishes in the Eastleigh neighbourhood of Kenya's capital
Nairobi, November 19, 2012. Police fired tear gas to disperse Kenyans who
threw stones and broke into the homes and shops of ethnic Somalis in
Nairobi's Somali-dominated Eastleigh neighbourhood on Monday to protest
against a bomb attack in the district on Sunday. REUTERS-Thomas Mukoya
Somali rioters
Received on Mon Nov 19 2012 - 21:29:32 EST
