Monday, January 22, 2007
A senior Mogadishu police commander said the patrols would begin on Tuesday, while government spokesperson Abdirahman Dinari said the transitional regime was introducing further measures to secure the war-torn city.
"From Tuesday the police force of Somalia will patrol all over Mogadishu and no area will be left out," said the police commander who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity.
The Islamists had managed to bring some semblance of order to Mogadishu in the six months that they controlled the capital,following 16 years of fighting between rival warlords.
However, their flight from the capital on December 28 following military intervention by Ethiopian forces alongside troops from the transitional government - previously based in a provincial
backwater - has led to a new spike in violence.
While the government has reached a disarmament deal with the warlords, attacks on the presidential palace and on a convoy of Ethiopian troops over the weekend underlined the precarious
security situation.
Dinari said that securing Mogadishu was key if Somalia as a whole was to be stabilised after a seemingly endless cycle of violence.
Police were last on regular patrol in the city in 1991 before the demise of the dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. Warlords' militias have since largely controlled the streets, often setting up their
own roadblocks and collecting money from residents.
"The government is taking all the necessary measures to deploy the police. There is a necessity to make Mogadishu a peaceful place. It is a mirror that reflects the true picture of Somalia," Dinari told reporters.
"We are urging the people of Mogadishu to fully cooperate with the police in order to fulfil their national duties," the police commander said.
"We are urging the citizens to provide police with information about the activities of unlawful people."
The African Union also authorised the deployment last week of a 7 600-strong stabilisation force for Somalia.
However only Uganda has thus far publicly pledged troops to take part in a mission that Eritrea has warned could turn into a quagmire.
Source: AFP, Jan 22, 2007