MOGADISHU - A powerful warlord has surrendered his weapons to Mogadishu’s Islamists rulers as the group continues to assert its authority across the Horn of Africa country, officials said on Saturday. The warlord and former minister for religious affairs Omar Finnish handed over more than 200 weapons, including machine guns and mortars, as well as members of his militia to the Islamist leadership. “We accepted what our traditional and religious elders requested us to do, which is to surrender all our weapons to the Council of Islamic Courts,” Ahmed Aden Dacwo, an aide to Omar told reporters on Saturday.The Islamic movement ejected U.S.-backed secular warlords from Mogadishu on June 5 and this week announced they were expanding their control across the country.
Residents of Mogadishu’s Madina district had lived in fear of renewed fighting, worried that Omar would attempt to recapture his lost territory. “This is a good thing, it is a good culture where we are seeing those defeated now surrendering,” said Halimo Jeyte, a mother-of-two.