Five die in cafe shooting
2005-09-22 11:34
Mogadishu - Four unidentified gunmen attacked a cafe in Somalia's capital, killing five people and wounding six others, witnesses said on Thursday.
Three of the wounded were in comas after being shot in the head, said Dr Abdi Ibrahim Jiya of the Madina Hospital, where the men were being treated.
The assailants fled the scene after the attack on Wednesday.
The raid was probably in retaliation for the shooting death of a man at the cafe on Monday during a dispute between friends over how they would share a bundle of khat, a semi-narcotic leaf many in the region chew, said Tahliil Abubakar Hassan, an attendant at a nearby grocery store.
Relatives of the victim had promised revenge, and some of those killed on Wednesday were relatives of the man who allegedly shot dead his friend, Hassan said.
Lawless Somalia has not had an effective central government since clan-based warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. Warlords then turned on each other, plunging the country of seven million into chaos.
- AP