Updated

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

Militias have extorted cash from civilians during 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. Abdullahi Artan, the director of Mogadishu's municipal council, says five tax collectors have been killed this year, following the deaths of 10 last year.

Somalis are resisting paying taxes in part because of the high levels of government corruption, which a United Nations report this month said is "embedded in all layers of society."