Tuesday June 11, 2024
Mogadishu (HOL) - The Somali government has given residents a ten-day notice to exhume the bodies of their relatives from the School Policia cemetery in Mogadishu, where a navy camp will be built.
During a press conference held at the cemetery on Monday, the Minister of Defense, the Commander of the Somali Police Force, the Deputy Commissioner of Security for the Banadir region, and prominent Sheikhs called for the immediate removal of the buried bodies.
Minister of Defense Abdulkadir Mohamed Noor emphasized that the federal government owned the land before it became a cemetery and now intends to repurpose it as a command center for the Somali Navy and Coastal forces.
“The government needs this land, which stretches from the entrance of Marino Gate airport to the Yerdemeli hospital. This land has always been of public interest and owned by the government. Now, the government has pressing needs, and the Navy and Coastal Army will be established here,” said Defense Minister Abdulkadir Mohamed Noor.
Last month, reports indicated that the federal government would exhume the bodies in the cemetery in the Hamar Jajab district. The body of well-known comedian Abdi Muriidi Dheere (Ajakis), who passed away in September 2021, was the first to be removed following these reports.