Somali police officer kills a street vendor who refused to accept unfit banknotes

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Somali police officer kills a street vendor who refused to accept unfit banknotes

MOGADISHU (HORN OBSERVER) Omar Hassan Moalim, a street vendor has joined into a long list of victims killed by Somalia police in Mogadishu amid an increasing police brutality.

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Police and members of the public gather at an incident site in Mogadishu's KM4 (PHOTO: file).

MOGADISHU (HORN OBSERVER) Omar Hassan Moalim, a street vendor has joined into a long list of victims killed by Somalia police in Mogadishu amid an increasing police brutality.

On Tuesday afternoon, an armed police officer shot dead Mr. Omar Hassan Moalim, about 70-years-old father of six children, who works as a street vendor in Hamar Jajab neighbourhood in Mogadishu. According to witnesses and family members, the street vendor sold cigarettes to the police man but the street vendor "refused to accept unfit Somali shilling banknotes and demanded for a replacement".

"The street vendor said he can not accept the unfit banknotes and therefore demanded a replacement. The police man who was angry had drawn his rifle and shot the street vendor Omar on the head prompting for his instant death," Hamar Jajab resident, Mohamed Ahmed told Horn Observer.

"We are mourning. We are helpless. The police has now become another terrorist group. Everyday civilians are killed by the police and nobody is talking about it," Halima Abdirahman, another resident of Hamar Jajab said.

Residents in Hamar Jajab neighbourhood had protested the killing and called for immediate arrest of the murderer police officer who has been identified as a member of Shingani District Commissioner's police men.

"These police men who work with Shingani District Commissioner have been terrorising us for long. They attack women during the night. They rob us mobile phones. We can not go outside in the night. It is like we cannot breathe. The government should intervene to help us," said one woman during the protest according to Radio Risaala which covered the incident and the following protest on Tuesday.

Mr. Moalim's death becomes the latest in a spate of unresolved violent murders by the Somali police in Mogadishu in the recent few months. Last month, another police officer shot dead a young university student in San'a area of Mogadishu following a argument over a blocked road.

Meanwhile, the Banadir Regional Administration said the police arrested the killer officer and was taken into police custody describing the shooting of the street vendor as "brutal and unacceptable".

"My officers who were at the scene of the murder and saw the killer officer, have managed to arrest him. This officer is now at the hands of the police and will face the law," the deputy governor of Banadir Regional Administration, Mohamed Abdullahi said.

(HORN OBSERVER)