What Do You Guys Think About The Martial Law That Is Going To Be Declared?

[raadamiir]

What Do You Guys Think About The Martial Law That Is Going To Be declared?

 

Martial law to be declared in Somalia

 

Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamad Gedi said parliament will declare a period of martial law to maintain control of the country after Ethiopian and government troops wrested the capital from rival Islamists.

 

The fall of Mogadishu came after a 10-day offensive by government and allied forces to reclaim much of the territory seized by the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) since June.

 

While Mr Gedi celebrated a triumphant return to his home village outside Mogadishu for the first time since 2002, he acknowledged the chaotic country was far from stable.

 

"This country has experienced anarchy and in order to restore security we need a strong hand, especially with freelance militias," he said of the country which has not had an effective government since the 1991 ouster of a dictator.

 

He told reporters in Mundul Sharey, a dusty village some 40 km (25 miles) southwest of Mogadishu, parliament would declare martial law on Saturday for a period of three months.

 

The flight of the Islamists was a dramatic turn-around in the Horn of Africa nation after they had spread across the south imposing sharia rule and confined the interim government to its base in Baidoa until less than two weeks ago.

 

Terrified of yet more violence in a city that has become a byword for chaos, some Mogadishu residents took to the streets to cheer government troops, while others hid. Some SICC fighters ditched their uniforms to avoid reprisals.

 

Government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said the Islamists had fled to the southern port city of Kismayu and that the administration now controlled 95 per cent of Somalia. But analysts said a government victory was in no way certain and that the conflict could be about to take another turn.