{"id":36213,"date":"2026-06-04T09:56:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T07:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&p=36213"},"modified":"2026-06-04T09:56:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T07:56:20","slug":"somali-military-opposition-allied-militias-trade-fire-ahead-of-anti-government-protests","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/somali-military-opposition-allied-militias-trade-fire-ahead-of-anti-government-protests\/","title":{"rendered":"Somali military, opposition-allied militias trade fire ahead of anti-government protests"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Government troops and militias allied with the opposition exchanged fire overnight \u200band on Thursday morning in Somalia’s capital \u200cMogadishu, damaging property and forcing some civilians to flee, residents told Reuters.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The violence flared up ahead of planned \u200bprotests on Thursday over President Hassan Sheikh \u200bMohamud’s decision to remain in office after his \u2060term expired last month.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Parliament in March backed \u200bconstitutional changes that potentially allowed Mohamud to extend \u200bhis term by a year and push back an election.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The fighting started on Wednesday and continued into \u200bThursday morning, with thousands of government troops deployed \u200bin Mogadishu’s Howlwadag and Abdiasis districts, where they traded fire \u200cwith \u2060militias supporting the opposition, residents told Reuters.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“A mortar shell landed on my neighbour’s house, injuring a mother. A big house near us is also \u200bablaze, mortars \u200band other \u2060weapons landed on it,” one resident, Ahmed Ismail, told Reuters early on \u200bThursday.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Somalia’s information and defence ministers could\u00a0\u200bnot be\u00a0\u2060reached for comment as they did not pick up their calls or respond to messages sent\u00a0\u2060to\u00a0\u200btheir phones.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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At least two armoured \u200bvehicles were burnt, Mohamud Farah, another witness, told Reuters.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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–Reuters–<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":30523,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-36213","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Somali government troops and militias allied with the opposition exchanged fire","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36214,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36213\/revisions\/36214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=36213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}