Friday 4 October 2013

Kenya cleric killing sparks protests



Crowds gather around the car in Mombassa
Watch: A fellow cleric at the scene accuses the Kenyan security forces of killing Omar - an allegation they strongly deny
A church has been set on fire in the Kenyan port of Mombasa as rioters protest against killing of Muslim cleric Ibrahim "Rogo" Omar.
"They have burnt the Salvation Army church and we are now trying to repulse them with tear gas," AFP quotes a senior police officer as saying.
Mr Omar and three other people were shot dead in Mombasa as they drove home on Thursday night after preaching.
It comes two weeks after the deadly attack on a Nairobi shopping centre.

Somali Islamist group al-Shabab, which is part of al-Qaeda, said its militants stormed the Westgate mall in the capital in retaliation for Kenya's military involvement in Somalia.
Mr Omar's killing is similar to that of Aboud Rogo Mohammed last year, which sparked days of rioting by Muslims.
Mr Rogo was alleged to have links with al-Shabab and some Muslims accused the Kenyan security forces of killing him - an allegation they strongly denied.
'Died on the spot'
Eyewitnesses in Mombasa said police were firing in the air to try to disperse the demonstrators on Friday.
The sound of shots being fired could be heard while the BBC was speaking to a local journalist.
Mr Omar was seen as Mr Rogo's successor, as he preached at the same mosque and was given the nickname Rogo after his death.
Correspondents say the Masjid Musa Mosque is known to attract some radical followers.
Muslim cleric Abubaker Shariff Ahmed, known as Makaburi, said the police were behind these killings.
"They should tell us the truth about Westgate, not kill innocent Muslims in Mombasa," he told reporters at the scene of the crashed car.
Makaburi has been sanctioned by the UN Security Council for being "a leading facilitator and recruiter of young Kenyan Muslims for violent militant activity in Somalia".
"Sheikh Ibrahim was not at Westgate, he had nothing to do with Westgate, nor were the other people in that car. Why are they killing them here?" the cleric said.
The police in Mombasa have denied involvement in Mr Omar's killing.
"The police have nothing to do with the shooting. That's not how we operate," Reuters news agency quoted Robert Kitur, Mombasa County police commander, as saying.
The car smashed into the verge off the main coastal road north of Mombasa, not far from where Mr Rogo was shot dead in his vehicle in August 2012.
A man who survived the drive-by shooting of Muslim cleric Sheikh Ibrahim Ismail stands next to a bullet-riddled car on the Mombasa-Malindi highway late on October 3, 2013
Salim Abdi was the only person to survive the attack
The vehicle's windows were shattered in the attack and its doors riddled with bullet holes.
Salim Abdi was the only survivor of the shooting and said "all four others I was with in the vehicle died on the spot".
"There were gunshots and the vehicle veered off the road, I don't know how I walked out of the vehicle alive," AFP quotes him as saying.
BBC © 2013

No comments:

Post a Comment