Somali government evicts 500 families near capital’s main airport, citing security concerns

Hundreds of Somali families evicted near airport

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Witnesses say hundreds of poor Somali families are being forcibly evicted from their homes near the airport.

Asha Madey said Friday that she spent the night in the open with her seven children after their two-room house was destroyed by security personnel with bulldozers.

Police spokesman Abdulahi Hassan Barise says the plan will continue until threats to Mogadishu’s main airport are eliminated. The targeted area was a former air force base and is about 100 yards (meters) from the airport’s fence.

Human rights groups say the families — who squatted the idle land — have no place to go.

Somalia’s fragile government is battling Islamists who usually fire mortars from residential areas.