Mogadishu mayor orders beachfront restaurants to close at midnight

The mayor of Mogadishu on Thursday ordered bars, restaurants and hotels along the city's Lido beachfront to close at midnight after complaints from religious leaders.

"In response to several complaints from society, notably religious leaders, the administration orders restaurants and hotels along the Lido beach to close after midnight," Mayor Abdirahman Omar said in a statement.

"Any restaurant or hotel which is at odds with the Islamic religion and the norms of Somali decency will be permanently closed," he said, adding that drugs in particular would not be tolerated.

The popularity of Lido beach establishments is testament to improved security in recent years in this part of the city. Mogadishu has been regularly targeted by Shabaab, an Al-Qaeda affiliate fighting to overthrow the internationally backed Somali government.

Despite the improvement, in January 2016, 20 people died when Shabaab gunmen detonated a bomb before bursting into one restaurant and spraying customers with gunfire.

In August 2016, seven more people died in another attack on a restaurant close to the beach.

The Shabaab claimed responsibility saying the restaurant was targeted because it was frequented by "apostates" indulging in "obscenity and vice".

Shabaab fighters were pushed out of Somalia's capital in 2011, and subsequently from other towns and cities, by troops from the United Nations-backed African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).

But the Islamists still hold sway in large parts of the countryside.

They launch regular gun and bomb attacks on government, military and civilian targets in Mogadishu as well as ambushes on military convoys and outposts.

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