Gang fights in Addu: Spilled blood over graffiti

After a year of relative calm on the streets of Addu, a 30-year-old man was attacked and stabbed by a group in Addu on Friday night. He is fighting for his life now in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH). There has been a series of fights between the dangerous gangs operating in Addu since then.

On Sunday, a group attacked a young man who was entering his house after finishing work. He tried to escape the attack but the group took him over and fled after beating him up. This was revenge for Friday night's fight.

How did the gangs of Addu wake up again and go into a series of violence and bloodshed?

In an exclusive interview with Atoll Times regarding the violence, Assistant Commissioner Ahmed Shameem, commander of the southern regional police, where Addu falls under, said that the fighting was caused and continued on a dispute between the Usgandu group and the Scoop group operating in Hithadhoo, Addu. 

According to the people of Addu, these are the two most dangerous and strongest groups in Addu. The competition between the two is hot and escalating.

The reason for the dispute between the two groups leading to bloodshed, Shameem said, was in itself very minor. The issue has been heating up since early last month, he said.

"It is believed that a graffiti painted by one group has been damaged or erased by another group. That is where this started," Shameem said. He said gang activities in Addu started increasing in the 2000s. Since then, 13 gangs have been formed in Addu, he said. He noted that six gangs are active in Addu today as well.

The most active are two groups in Feydhoo and two in Hithadhoo.

“Since 2015, the activities of dangerous groups have been planned in Addu,” Shameem said.

He said no matter how much the police kept an eye on the activities of the gangs and monitored their areas, their activities were sometimes not intercepted by the police because such groups committed crimes in a highly covert manner. Shameem said the fight on Friday night also took place after they had been holed up somewhere and then making the attack suddenly.

"Police used every resource available here to proactively try to stop the fighting. But at 2:20 pm that night, they still ran this," Shameem said.

"They didn't form a group in advance and go. Some people who were hiding got caught on their way out  and thats when the fight broke”.

Shameem also gave statistics on the spread of gang activities in Addu. He said: 

"The involvement of people belonging to these groups in Addu has also been highlighted in gang violence across the country. So the fact of the matter is that all of them are connected in different areas of the community. So, people's concerns are very much there. That's what the public is raising. It doesn't seem like it can be stopped completely," Shameem said. 

He said an additional police force has been deployed from Male to control the situation in Addu. A special investigation team has also left. Shameem says police capacity has been increased to calm the situation.

"Right now, we have enough capacity for our operation to manage. The message I would give to the public is if you have any information about something like this, please let us know. If you see someone carrying anything sharp, please report it. We will keep our informants safe," he said.

"The work of the police has taken us to a point where we can live in a much more peaceful manner. I'm sure no matter how few resources we have, we won't let go and continue in our work to stop this."