ABSTRACT
All reporting on "Black Friday" and its aftermath cited the Somali government's long-standing denial of visas to journalists. As a result of this policy there were no foreign journalists in the country at all at the time of these incidents. The curfew was further relaxed on July 26. Originally imposed from dusk to dawn, it was first shortened on July 20 and finally only enforced between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. The trouble started after Friday prayers on 14 July, when people came out of two mosques in the center of the city chanting anti-government slogans. The government had been expecting trouble. Six months after "Black Friday" Africa Events suggested that the bishop's murder had indeed been carried out by the regime, in the person of a member of the National Security Service at the instigation of Issa Ugas. More commonplace, Land Cruisers were being stolen throughout the region, often at gunpoint, and nighttime robberies were becoming virtually routine.
