Food Prices Spur Deadly Riots In Somalia

Witnesses Say At Least 2 Killed By Government Soldiers As Tens Of Thousands Protest

(AP)  Troops opened fire and killed at least two people among tens of thousands who rioted over high food prices in Somalia's capital Monday, a doctor and witnesses said.

On the other side of the continent, Senegal's leader called for the United Nations to disband its main agricultural organization, calling it an incompetent money-eater that failed to alert the world to the global food crisis. Prices of rice and other food staples have risen by 47 percent worldwide, and by even more in Africa, stoked by poor weather, fuel prices and growing demand from India and China's burgeoning middle classes. There have been protests, some deadly, in the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.

In Mogadishu, protesters including women and children marched against the refusal of traders to accept old 1,000-shilling notes, blaming them and a growing number of counterfeiters for rising food costs.

"Down with those suffocating us!" the protesters screamed.

Within an hour, a reporter for The Associated Press watched their ranks swell to tens of thousands. They jammed narrow streets, many wielding thick sticks, and spread to all 13 districts of the capital. Some hurled stones, smashing the windshields of several cars and buses. Rocks also were thrown at shops and chaos erupted at the capital's main Bakara market.

Hundreds of shops and restaurants in southern Mogadishu closed their doors for fear of looting.

Witnesses said troops opened fire in at least two areas of the capital, but most soldiers fired into the air.

Dr. Dahir Dhere said a man wounded in the protests died on the way to an operating room at the capital's main Medina Hospital.

Protester Abdinur Farah said he was marching with his uncle along with the uncle's two wives and six children in southern Mogadishu when government troops opened fire. He said his uncle was hit and died before they could get him to the hospital.

"He was just peacefully expressing his feelings," Farah said. "It is saddening that the very government which is supposed to support him killed him."

Other witnesses said four people were wounded and several more injured in the violence.

"First we have been killed with bullets, now they are killing us with hunger," one protester, Halima Omar Hassan, told a reporter. She is a porter who carries goods for people on her back.

In Mogadishu, the price of 2.2 pounds of corn meal has gone from 12 cents in January to 25 cents. Another staple, rice, has risen in that time from $26 to $47.50 for a sack of 110 pounds.

Food prices also have been affected by the plummeting Somali shilling, which lost nearly half its value this year, tumbling from 17,000 shillings to about 30,000 to the U.S. dollar amid growing insecurity and a market clogged with millions of counterfeit notes printed in bulk locally.

This Horn of Africa nation has been in turmoil for decades and without a functioning government since dictator Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991.

Over the past year, thousands of civilians have been killed and hundreds of thousands forced from their homes in fighting between Islamist insurgents and a U.N-sponsored transitional government supported by troops from neighboring Ethiopia.

The U.N. food security unit warned last week that half Somalia's population of 7 million faces famine. It blamed an enduring drought as well as soaring food prices.

Food protests also have erupted in three other African countries, including Senegal, whose President Abdoulaye Wade called for the United Nations to dismantle its Food and Agriculture Organization.

In a statement Sunday, Wade said he had long called for the Rome-based organization to be transferred to Africa, "near the 'sick ones' it pretends to care for."

"This time, I'm going further: It must be eliminated," he said. Wade suggested its assets be transferred to the U.N. International Fund for Agricultural Development, which he said was more efficient, and that the fund set up headquarters in Africa, "at the heart of the problem."

FAO officials would not comment.

Wade's government responded to protest marches by securing a deal with India that ensures Senegal's needs of 600,000 tons of rice a year are met for the next six years. In Burkina Faso, the government eliminated duties and taxes on rice, salt, milk and all products used to prepare food for children.

[louiville2]

kailumego1- Didn''t you forget about the Moor''s, Carthaginians, Egyptians and what about the current Somolia pirates etc...? Another History 101 5th grade question you bore-on.

[kailumego1]

louiville2 "By the way Africans have been studying how to exploit the white man and their resources for just as long. It''''s one of those Darwin things. Africa is losing the battle and that''''s what%u2019s really bothering you, isn''''t it?"

Are you insane, you need to stop sniffing cocaine, Africans exploit the white man for his resources.

And you talk about paranoid delusion, and my misunderstanding of history, where does Social Darwinism fit in this scheme.

You know "absolutely" nothing about African history to even allow that nonsense to part from your lips.

At least if you''re going to be obnoxious don''t distort the truth.

There has never been a Social Darwinian battle between Africans, Western Europeans and the United States, with the exception when Euro-imperial forces invaded Africa starting back to the Roman and Greek Empires.

And Euro-American resources don''t tip the scale in comparison to Africa that''s why Western Europeans sought to colonize Africa.

You most certainly are a legend in your own mind, to misrepresent the facts and conjure up fallacies in order to buttress your self-aggrandized egoism.

[louiville2]

kailumego1-%u201CI have numerous of articles where the U.S. and Western European countries have been for numerous of years investigating Africa%u2019s natural resources. They%u2019ve even compiled research based on financial aspects/benefits of obtaining or acquiring those natural resources."

You''re just now learning this and it''s not numerous years it''s been centuries, I guess you skipped History in grade school.

By the way Africans have been studying how to exploit the white man and their resources for just as long. It''s one of those Darwin things. Africa is losing the battle and that''s what%u2019s really bothering you, isn''t it?

Now this crack pot theory about HIV, HIV which is preventable. If the white man was going to create one don%u2019t you think they would have picked one that exploited something like sickle cell anemia? Instead of one that exploits people with loose morals.

[kailumego1]

I have numerous of articles where the U.S. and Western European countries have been for numerous of years investigating Africa''s natural resources. They''ve even compiled research based on financial aspects/benefits of obtaining or acquiring those natural resources.

For example Northern Africa is a wealth of natural gas, oil, and petroleum deposits trickling down to parts of West and Central Africa.

Likewise, countries like CAR, Equatorial Guinea, Congo DRC, Angola, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa, etc. etc., is rich in tin, uranium, chromium, iron ore, platinum, gold, diamonds, etc., etc., etc.

And if you''re as bright as you''re trying to let on, then you would know the reason, why the United States and Western Europeans seek to control Africa.

"Resources"!
I''ve carefully studied all the natural resources of Western Europeans and the United States, which these countries have absolutely nothing on Africa.

Resources!

A cyclone hit Mymamar, which markets 2% of the rice crop, where massive devastation along the Irriwaky Delta destroying rice fields,and which Western Europeans and American consumers are experiencing possible shortages and price hikes.

Resources!

When disruption occurred in South Africa at platinum mines the stock hit $2000 an ounce sending panic to auto-manufactures, because platinum is used in catalytic converters.

Resources!

[kailumego1]

louiville2 you sound like the "obedient follower", if you think, as you''ve stated", that I have paranoid delusions, which by the way, is typical of someone trying to circumvent the truth, then read Kissinger''s report.

I read a sample, it is an explicit outline of how the CIA planed its massive depopulation of Africa, which is not a "paranoid delusion".

The same CIA that allowed Nazi war criminals a safe passage out of Germany, into the United States and South America, and that''s a known fact.

You need venture out of your narrow-minded perception about this country and Western European countries, because it''s all about "resources".

Check out the CIA website, they have a list of all resources worldwide, e.g. juxtapose the United States with Africa.

[louiville2]

kailumego1
"not surprising you%u2019ll state that, I%u2019ve read considerable research by creditable professionals in this field, which have stated the HIV/AIDS virus is a man made virus unleashed on the African populous.

"Smoking Gun"!"

Only in your mind they are called paranoid delusions. Get help before it gets worse. As far as your idea that this some how a 1957+ plot pleaasse. Mankind has been looking for something to cull the heard for millennia.

The Japanese during WWII tested diseases on Asian and European prisoners of war, trying to find a disease that would kill of Europeans. The Jews had the arc of the covenant that was supposed to wipe out their enemies. The Xhosa of Africa in 1856 believed a 16 girl who prophesized that if they killed their cattle and burned their grain the white man would be blown into the sea and their cattle etc... would be replaced. The following famine killed about 80,000 Xhosa until the white man bailed them out by feeding them. %u201CHint%u201D do you see the problem with blindly believing in *** science.

[libh8er]

''Food Prices Spur Deadly Riots In Somalia''

That''s one way to cut down on the demand! Keep up the good work.

[nothappyatall]

The microbe would be used against the general population and would be introduced by vaccine administered by the World Health Organization.

Posted by kailumego1

Just one weee little problem with that conspiracy theory- HIV is spread by S3X and contact with BLOOD, you don''t simply develop HIV all by yourself or from being vaccinated- which would be indescriminate.

As blundering as the Govt is, they could never keep such a thing "secret" for long, nor concoct such a scheme- these are IDIOTS who can''t even run a balanced BUDGET!

[kailumego1]

louiville2, not surprising you''ll state that, I''ve read considerable research by creditable professionals in this field, which have stated the HIV/AIDS virus is a man made virus unleashed on the African populous.

"Smoking Gun"!

It''s all in the way you view it, of course, if you chose to bury your head in the sand, and rationalize, then I guess you''ll continue believing the fallacies of this government and country.

You think your views are pragmatic, but in reality they are based on grandiose logic, totally deviating from the truth.

And for someone that throws around terms conjecture and hypothesis, should be quite aware of how theories or paradigms are based.

[minnick8-2009]

It is hard for me to believe that aids was invented and perpretrated by some evil plot of the White man (probably George Bush) to take out the entire population of Africa. However, even if it was, as Newster1 has stated above, "HIV! its the easiest preventable disease in the world, its not passed by casual contact, by the air, by toilet seats and out of the body it is very fragile."

Therefore, if HIV is running amok in some countries, is there anything that persons in those countries might do, or not do to halt the spread of HIV? Golly, I just don''t know, I can''t figure it out.

[louiville2]

kailumego1 Red herrings but again no smoking gun. Everyone you quote have NOTHING to do with HIV research, study. You offer nothing but hypothesis and conjecture. Wishing it so doesn%u2019t work.

[kailumego1]

To aid you in your research of this CRIME the name of the report was "THE LIMITS TO GROWTH" A REPORT FOR THE CLUB OF ROME''S PROJECT ON THE PREDICAMENT OF MANKIND. In April 1968 the study began in the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome Italy. They met at the instigation of Dr. Aurelio Peccei. The Top Secret recommendations of the results of the study were made by Dr. Aurelio Peccei who pledged not to use the prophylactic and not to take the cure should the microbe be developed and should he contract the disease. Dr. Peccei was hailed as a great hero for deciding to take the same risk as the general population. The public results of the study were published in 1972.

The MIT project team that participated in the study are listed below:

Dr. Dennis L. Meadows, director, United States

Dr. Alison A. Anderson, United States (pollution)

Dr. Jay M. Anderson, United States (pollution)

Ilyas Bayar, Turkey (agriculture)

William W. Behrens III, United States (resources)

Farhad Hakimzadeh, Iran (population)

Dr. Steffen Harbordt, Germany (socio-political trends)

Judith A Machen, United States (administration)

Dr. Donella H. Meadows, United States (population)

Peter Milling, Germany (capital)

Nirmala S. Murthy, India (population)

Roger F. Naill, United States (resources)

Jorgen Randers, Norway (population)

Stephen Shantzis, United States (agriculture)

John A. Seeger, United States (administration)

Marilyn Williams, United States (documentation)

Dr. Erich K. O. Zahn, Germany (agriculture)

[kailumego1]

louiville2, I''m quite aware he''s a dentist, but, however, what does that have to do with the facts.

He''s not the only professional coming forward about this phenomenon.

I''ve read numerous articles by medical professionals, doctors, scientists, etc., which have the courage to write and speak about the AIDS dilemma.

That it is man made and not a product of a green monkey, where the African natives feasted upon, but a biological disaster.

The first study was made in 1957 by scientists meeting in Huntsville Alabama. That study resulted in "Alternative 3." Another study was made by the Club of Rome in 1968 to determine the limits to growth. The result of the study was that civilization as we know it would collapse shortly after the year 2000 unless the population was seriously curtailed. Several Top Secret recommendations were made to the ruling elite by Dr. Aurelio Peccei of the Club of Rome. The chief recommendation was to develop a microbe which would attack the auto immune system and thus render the development of a vaccine impossible. The orders were given to develop the microbe and to also develop a cure and a prophylactic. The microbe would be used against the general population and would be introduced by vaccine administered by the World Health Organization.

[louiville2]

kailumego1

Of course you know that Dr. Horowitz is a Doctor of dentistry, you know where they use to practice out of a barber shop. He found he could make money scaring people with his first book about a dentist who allegedly infected patients with HIV. It sold so well he went looking for a bigger conspiracy to sell.

These conspiracies come along all the time and they are a good money maker for a few. This one is right up their with UFO%u2019s hundreds of JFK conspiracies.

The fact that you believe it says more about your paranoia%u2019s and hates.

[underdogus]

"Food Prices Spur Deadly Riots In Somalia" WE lose Iraq the headline will read "FOOD PRICES SPUR DEADLY RIOTS IN THE UNITED STATES" watch your head libs....

[yongamerica]

Isn''t this the very same Islamic based country where the entire population hates the US and its western ways? Is this not the very same country that didn''t want our presence and made that clear in the Battle of Mogadishu (Blackhawk down)?

Let their Islamic brothers feed them.

[nonayabiness]

It is starting, folks. This is only the beginning.

[rudy654-2009]

Posted by dogsoul at 05:12 PM

You can change your name from dogsoul to dogkrap anytime, sweety! You are not worth the grave they will dig to bury you in.

[nothappyatall]

HIV! its the easiest preventable disease in the world, its not passed by casual contact, by the air, by toilet seats and out of the body it is very fragile. AIDS is a NON-disease as far as I''m concerned! we should be devoting all this money wasted on AIDS cures- into finding cures or better treatments for the deadly diseases that strike truly innocent victims at random, and all ages that thus far are NOT preventable- CANCER, HEART ATTACK/FAILURE, STROKE, DIABETES, MS, BLINDNESS, LOU GERRIG''s and the list goes on.

[nothappyatall]

I would worry a lot more about what people routinely give one another just being in the same ROOM or touching the same objects- influenza that can be and is fatal, colds, and much more! Were it not for vaccines we would still have polio which was also spread person to person.

From 1979 to 1994, the overall death rates for Pneumonia & influenza (based on underlying cause of death) increased 59%, from 20.0 to 31.8 deaths per 100,000 population. An average of 34,000 deaths per year to influenza for the period 1976%u20131999

Since 2000 the annual numbers of AIDS diagnoses have been relatively constant, with an estimated 37,852 in 2006. In total, an estimated 1,014,797 people have been diagnosed with AIDS in America.

The death rate among people with AIDS has also remained relatively stable in recent years; there were an estimated 14,627 deaths in 2006. Since the beginning of the epidemic, an estimated 565,927 people with AIDS have died in the USA.

So 200% more people a year DIE from pneumonia and influenza and those are not preventable, HIV is- just dont sleep with other people and you dont get HIV! its the easiest preventable disease in the world.