Somalis stage rare protest condemning deadly attack

Mail & Guardian Online

December 5, 2009

Hundreds of Somalis held a rare street protest after Friday prayers to condemn a suicide bombing at a graduation ceremony in Mogadishu in which at least 23 people were killed. The demonstration took place in the central town of Dhusamareb, close to the Ethiopian border, and was organised by Ahlu Sunna wal Jamaa, a moderate Sufi organisation opposed to hardline Islamists. "Today we are here to show solidarity with the innocent civilians killed in Mogadishu yesterday," a spokesperson for the group, Sheikh Abdullahi Abdurahman Abu Yusuf, told the demonstrators.