Somali militants destroy Roman Catholic church
APA-Mogadishu (Somalia)
Reports from the Somali key port town of Kismayu, 500 kilometers south of Mogadishu, say Islamists controlling the town on Tuesday destroyed a Roman Catholic church there.
The church that was built by Italians some 60 years ago, has in the past 18 years been occupied by at least 15 Somali displaced families, who have been ordered to move before the devastation begins on Tuesday.
Sheik Abubakar Al-Seylici, chairman of Islamist administration in the town told in a press conference earlier on Tuesday that his Islamic rule has come to decision to destroy the church and build a mosque instead.
“We are Muslims and we have to know that our religion prohibited Christian holy sites built for spreading Christianity in the Muslim territory” the sheik insisted during his press conference.
Al-Seylici promised that his adminstration will resettle the displaced who were forced to leave the church.
Somalia has been lack of functioning government since 1991, when warlords with the help of public uprising, over powered former military rule of the late General Mohamed Siyad Barre.