“I am not able to go out shopping, and that has made life really hard,” said a resident who requested anonymity. Residents also said that Ethiopian troops blockade key roads at times they usually go to collect water, a move that has angered residents.
“We are allowed out only at 1pm and we can do our shopping until 4pm,”said Mohamed Hassan, a salesman whose business has suffered as a result of the Ethiopian military curfew.
On Tuesday, local elders held talks with Ethiopian military officials in Beledweyne in an attempt to ease the repeated curfews which have affected education, businesses, travel and other aspects of social life, but these have thus far failed to produce a tangible breakthrough.
Mohamud Ahmed Hoshow, the chairman of the Hiraan elders council, told local media that the council has asked the Ethiopian military to ease the curfews but that the Ethiopian officials have said security in the city was not yet established.
The bodies of two men were found overnight in Beledweyne, sources tell Somalia Report the dead bodies were found near a Transitional Federal Government (TFG) military base. The two men were said to be members of Takfir wal Hijraa, a religious movement which preaches violent punishment of those who are considered to have apostasized from Islam. The movement is known to have been based in Egypt and included Ayman al-Zawahiri, and is infamous for inspiring killings of Muslims who are seen as less than devout, or as traitors to the Muslim community.
It is not yet clear who was responsible for the deaths of the two men.
Extrajudicial killings have been on the rise since Somali government troops backed Ethiopian troops took control of the city a few weeks ago. Over a dozen people have been found killed along the roads of Beledweyne in recent weeks, and TFG officials have declined to comment.