Mogadishu food riots leave two dead

Mogadishu: Troops opened fire and killed at least two people among tens of thousands of people rioting over high food prices in Somalia's capital on Monday, a doctor and witnesses said.

Several people also were injured in the protest in Mogadishu.

The Somali protesters included women and children, who marched to protest the refusal of traders to accept old 1,000-shilling notes, blaming that for skyrocketing food prices.

Tens of thousands of people quickly took to the streets, hurling stones that smashed the windshields of several cars and buses. Rocks also were thrown at shops, and chaos erupted in the capital's main Bakara market.

Hundreds of shops and restaurants in southern Mogadishu closed their doors for fear of looting.

Dr Daher Dhere said one man wounded in the protests died on the way to an operating room at the capital's main Madina Hospital. And protester Abdinur Farah says he was marching with his uncle who was wounded when government troops opened fire in southern Moga-dishu.

He said his uncle died before they could take him to hospital.

Skyrocketing food prices, stoked by rising fuel prices, unpredictable weather and growing demand from India and China's burgeoning middle classes, have sparked sometimes violent protests in the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.

In Africa, prices of some staple foods have increased more than 50 per cent in a matter of weeks.