By: Yusuf M Hasan
HARGEISA (Somalilandsun) – Guurti elders have raised concern on the unchecked profusion of Marauding gangs of youths causing fears at night among citizens who are violently robbed sometimes ending with grievous injuries and or deaths.
The elders raised this concern during a press conference held at the house of Guurti by the chamber’s security committee that also asked citizens especially city residents to keep an eye on those among them who are members of the gangs causing a state of insecurity in their respective estates.
While urging gang members to cease harassing citizens immediately or face the wrath of law, the chair of the committee Elder Ahmed Musa Obsiye said, “the government will take stern action on the perpetrators by convicting them to long jail sentences”
Warning that the nation cannot be held at ransom by uncouth youths , elder Obsiye who pledged full follow-up by the Guurti, urged the administration especially the ministry of interior to ensure that law enforcement agencies perform as required thence eliminate prevalent insecurity especially within major towns is put in check.
Acknowledging that it was the mandate of the government to maintain law and order the elders warned parents who fail to control their children who end victims or villains, “some parents claim that their children were in mosques and innocent whenever they are informed that their offsprings are in custody after they were caught unleashing terror on innocent citizens” said the Guurti security committee chairman in conclusion of the press conference in which he also asked the local media to held advocate for good behavior and maintaince of law and order while impartially exposing ills committed by the gangs and police ineptitude when ever perceived.
Just like any other country, cases of criminal conduct like rape, robbery and murder are observed in Somaliland but In the recent past these crimes have seen an upsurge with police and hospitals reporting over 150 rapes in 2013 alone , violent robberies and murders mostly in the capital Hargeisa where the villains are gangs of youths.
Though these gangs are credited with a number of violent crimes, most notorious is the rape of two sisters by a gang of 21 gang members and the murders of three people within 24 hours among them late Mustafe Abdi Hassan who on the eve of graduating from Hargeisa university was stoned to death by by a four man gang three of whom are in Hargeisa police custody pending arraignment in court.
