Somali Traders Treating Tax Collectors Like the Warlords That Preceded Them

The Somali traders in Mogadishu's markets have long faced down Islamist rebels and warlords demanding money. Now they say there is a new predator: the government tax man.

Militias extorted cash from civilians during much of the last two decades of chaos. Now Mogadishu has a government in place, but shopkeepers view the taxman as the latest in a long line of troublemakers.

That makes tax collection one of the riskier jobs in Mogadishu: Five tax collectors have been killed so far this year, following the killings of 10 last year, according to the director of Mogadishu's municipal council, Abdullahi Artan.

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