No ‘Machine Guns Mounted on Vehicles’: Somalia Imposes Gun Ban on Capital

The president of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, implemented a full ban this weekend on carrying firearms on the streets of Mogadishu, the nation’s violent capital.

The Somalia Guardian reported Mohamud’s announcement comes as the capital city struggles with “worsening insecurity” at the hands of militias, terror organizations, and individual criminals.

“We impose a strict ban on carrying guns in the streets of Mogadishu,” Mohamud said this weekend, according to Voice of America. “One cannot justify having machine guns mounted on vehicles and rocket propelled grenades in the streets, for protection from a hiding al-Shabab militant armed with a pistol.”

He added, “No businessman can bring any kind of military gear into the country, let alone weapons. The traders cannot even import Abdi Bile vehicles in the country.”

Mohamud made clear there will be checkpoints and vehicle searches to ensure compliance with the gun ban.

Mohamud’s government is in phase two of a war with the al-Qaeda-linked jihadist organization al-Shabaab. The first phase occurred from “August 2022 through January 2023,” and current fighting is taking place “in the Central Somalia region of Hiran.”

Hussein Sheikh Ali, national security adviser for Mohamud, indicated that Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya, will be sending troops to help Somalia in the fight against al-Shabab.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. AWR Hawkins holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.