SOMALIA: First-ever AIDS awareness campaign

A group of campaigners against HIV/AIDS in Somalia, called AIDSOM, last week held the country's first ever public awareness demonstration in the coastal town of Marka, south of Mogadishu. "We did not experience any harassment and were mostly welcomed by the local population", said AIDSOM head Abdullahi Jama Hassan. However, he acknowledged that in some places the campaigners were forced to leave.