Somalia tightens security before historic elections

MOGADISHU:

Somalia will deploy more than 10,000 security personnel in the capital, Mogadishu, ahead of next week's local elections — the first direct polls in nearly 60 years — the security minister said on Sunday. The east African country is struggling to emerge from decades of conflict and chaos, battling a bloody Islamist insurgency and frequent natural disasters.

In April, the country launched voter registration for the first time in decades, a step towards universal suffrage and and end to the complex clan-based indirect voting system in place since 1969.