ACLED in the News
The city where shopkeepers fear their CCTV cameras could get them killed | BBC
Source: BBC | 18 December 2024
Shop owners in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, are caught between a rock and a hard place over a government directive that they install CCTV cameras outside their businesses to intensify surveillance of Islamist insurgents who have a strong presence in the city.
The businessmen say if they put up the cameras they risk being gunned down by the al-Shabab insurgents, and if they do not, they could be arrested by the police.
The BBC has changed the names of the businessmen and homeowners for their own safety.
“The CCTV cameras are why you now see me at home,” says former shopkeeper Hamza Nuur, 48, as he sits on a sofa holding one of his children.
He tells the BBC that he took the painful decision to sell his business to avoid incurring the wrath of either side.
