On Sunday, two Somali government soldiers, purportedly among those recently trained in Eritrea, assassinated a university student at the Bar Ubax crossroads in Mogadishu.
According to eyewitnesses, the troops were riding in an auto-rickshaw when they opened fire to clear the road, but one of their shots struck a student exiting the campus.
“These soldiers are a major issue for us. They are impatient and want to get somewhere quickly, like a jet. This is not acceptable “According to one eyewitness.
A female Khad vendor near the junction also commented on the incident. “Every day, they plunder us and take our Khad forcibly. We are suffering as a result of the deaths and robberies, and we have asked the government to solve the problem.”
The incident occurred a day after two units of Somali government security forces clashed at the main junction near Sinai market, an open-air vegetable market in Mogadishu, on Saturday. At least two soldiers were critically hurt, and the area was closed down.