Food protests: Man killed in Somali riot over prices

SOMALIA: A young man was killed when thousands of Somalis protested in Mogadishu yesterday over the refusal by food traders to take old currency notes blamed for causing inflation, witnesses said.

A shopkeeper shot the man after dozens of demonstrators wielding clubs and stones broke into his store. Locals said police wounded a teenage boy while trying to disperse hundreds of angry residents.

Despite still being a legal currency, many shopkeepers have been refusing to accept the old notes. The Somali shilling is valued at roughly 34,000 to the dollar - more than double what it is was a year ago - and many blame the fall in value on counterfeiters.

The problem has been compounded by sharply rising world food prices, leaving many in the Horn of Africa nation of 10 million people short of money to buy food.

"The whole city is up in smoke," protester Hussein Abdikadir said. "Traders have refused to take old notes. Food prices are high and we have nothing to eat. We will protest until the traders agree to take the notes and sell us food." - (Reuters)

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times