the continent’s first World Cup

As South Africa proudly held the continent's first World Cup, a Somali insurgent group, Hizbul Islam, detained dozens of fans for watching the tournament in recent days south of Somalia's capital, residents said.

"They have arrested 25 people on Saturday and Sunday nights from their homes during World Cup games on television screens," said Abdulle Mayow, a resident in Afgooye. "They are still in prison. We are really scared."

In some rebel-held areas, Somali soccer fans, mindful of the insurgents' threats, have been compelled to watch the games in a clandestine manner, using makeshift satellite dishes or tuning in to local FM televisions.

"Its really horrible; you cannot even do anything in your home," Mr. Mayow said.

New reports that two people had been killed for violating the insurgents' ban on watching soccer could not be independently verified, but the Somali Information Ministry denounced the rebel restrictions, saying, "The Somali people must be allowed to watch the World Cup football."

Unlike in the rebel-held areas, a number of cinemas have been opened in government-controlled territory to show movies and the soccer games at a very low price. Some analysts say the insurgents may be particularly motivated to block Somalis from playing or watching the games because it could divert the young militia recruits from going to the front lines.

Other forms of daily life have been deemed un-Islamic by insurgent groups and therefore off limits. Al Shabab, Somalia's most powerful Islamist insurgent group, outlawed school bells in a southern town in April after deciding that they were reminiscent of church bells. Similarly, Hizbul Islam recently warned radio stations to stop playing music or face "serious consequences," forcing them to introduce their daily programs with an odd assortment of sounds: the roar of an engine, a car horn, animal noises and the sound of water flowing.

Al Shabab and Hizbul Islam had already outlawed playing soccer games, bras and forms of entertainment like watching soccer games and movies. Insurgents tossed a grenade into a crowded movie theater and killed four people in Merka, about 55 miles outside Mogadishu, in 2008, apparently in an attempt to shut it down.