Government Officials to Hold Weekly Meetings against Drug Abuse in Mogadishu

The increasing rate of drug abuse in Mogadishu has necessitated the need for government to move against the development. In lieu of this, government officials have organised a weekly meeting to deliberate on the best ways to combat this problem.

While the first meeting was held yesterday, subsequent ones will hold once a week in Mogadishu by district commissioners and their deputies along with the Banadir governor and the meetings will address the spiralling supplies of drugs in the capital city, Mogadishu. The government strongly believes that rising cases of drug abuse can be connected to increasing insecurity in the capital city.

The district commissioners have been told to combat drug sales within the inner-city areas in order to punish drug dealers as well as drug addicts in their neighbourhoods.

Omar Mohamed ‘Finish’ the Banadir governor and Mogadishu mayor chaired the security strengthening conference and urged commissioners and the deputies to close down of all places accused of selling and distributing drugs.

There are growing rates of robberies following drug addiction in the city. Religious leaders were also asked to play their role of preaching against the negative consequences of the drug addictions among youth. The meeting also discussed the public sanitation in Mogadishu ‘each district commissioner will be held accountable for the poor sanitation of his or her district,’ said the governor.

Finally, Salah Omar Hassan the province spokesperson explained that ‘Today, the governor has inaugurated a security and drug combat conference of which police officials, commissioners, and deputies are to deal with social issues and fight drug abuse. Rape rate exponentially skyrocketed because of the wild increase of drug abuse by the youth… In a few days time, wider campaign against the drug abuse will be launched.’

Imams and mullahs participated in the meeting to play their role in creating awareness on the effects of drug abuse by the youth. They also pledged to use their platforms to ensure the government’s message is passed to the people.

Mogadishu city and regional administration has continued to reiterate its commitment to battling drug abuse even as the problem appears to be escalating.