Youths loot S Leone shops
2007-10-25 23:07
Freetown - Youths went on the rampage in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown on Thursday, attacking and looting Lebanese-owned shops after reports a Lebanese man had raped and killed a local woman.
Police fired tear gas to disperse crowds of young men who
broke into shops in the impoverished and densely populated east
end of Freetown, walking out with mobile phones, generators, TVs
and radios, a Reuters reporter said.
The violence followed reports that a man of Lebanese origin
in the diamond-trading town of Kenema raped a local woman who
later died in hospital.
An 11-year civil war, which ended in 2002, left many youths
without work in the dilapidated capital and other towns across
the former British colony.
Lebanese and Indian shopkeepers, who dominate the trade in
electrical and other goods in Sierra Leone, as in many other
countries around West Africa, shuttered their shops as best they
could before an uneasy calm returned.
Samir Hassaniyeh, the leader of the Lebanese community in
Sierra Leone, said some traders had received threats and delayed
opening their shops on Thursday, but later opened them thinking
the danger had passed.