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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Uganda bombings: Somalis in Uganda's capital now fear reprisal attacks |
| 2010-07-14 |
| As Uganda struggles to come to terms with the Uganda bombings that claimed the lives of 76 people watching the World Cup final Sunday, the roughly 10,000 Somalis living in the country are growing increasingly concerned that they could face a backlash from the local population -- and from authorities -- after Somalia's Al Qaeda-linked Islamist group Al Shabab claimed responsibility for the slaughter. In the bustling Kisenyi district of downtown Kampala -- a little Somalia of supermarkets and restaurants selling Somali goods and food -- the atmosphere since the bombings has been tense, local inhabitants say. "People are staying at home and not going out into the other parts of town," says Omar Nur Gutale, a former television station director who fled his homeland in 2008. "By 8 p.m. last night the streets here were empty. Normally they would be full of people." Uganda is a melting pot of nationalities from around the region, due to the country's liberal immigration policies, so Kampala has traditionally been a magnet for refugees fleeing the instability that has wracked surrounding countries. But since the bombings, tensions have been ratcheted up -- with a swirl of rumors of upcoming vigilante attacks against Somalis or arbitrary arrests adding to the sense of uncertainty in a community already living a precarious refugee existence. For many Somalis living in Kampala -- a large number of whom fled Al Shabab's murderous Islamic fundamentalism -- Sunday's bloodshed bought back painful memories of the daily violence they thought they had left behind when they escaped their war-ravaged homeland. "When I heard the news it felt like I was back in Mogadishu," says Gutale, who received death threats from the Islamic militant group in Somalia before deciding to leave. "We fled Al Shabab to come and live in peace in Kampala and now they have followed us here. We are victims as well." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Wonder why... To wit, TOPIX > AL-SHABAAB MILITANTS NOW THREATEN BURUNDI + AL-SHABAAB URGES ATTACKS ON DIPLOMATS. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-07-14 00:59 |