Crime surges in lawless Somali capital

Mustafa Haji Abdinur Friday, February 16, 2007

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AFP) - Dodging bombs and bullets may be routine for many Mogadishu residents, but a surge in violent crime in the Somali capital is compounding the years of misery of a war-weary people.

 

Increasing incidents of rape, robbery and carjacking in the Horn of Africa city pose an unfamiliar threat to many residents since the Ethiopia-backed government ousted an Islamist movement from Mogadishu late last year.

 

Gunmen prowl the capital's battle-scarred streets preying on people carrying cellphones or on bus drivers whose vehicles are commandeered for trade in spare parts, while daily artillery battles roar overhead.

 

"The city has become as it was once in 1992," said Mogadishu resident Hussein Mohamed Shiniyow, adding that he saw a young man gunned down by two gangs outside the city's Salama Mosque late on Thursday.

 

"People were killing each other and robbing each other at the time and now it seems that everything has returned back to hell," he said.

 

At least four people were killed on Thursday night during robberies, while six others were seriously wounded, according to witnesses.

 

The toppling of the Islamists, who brought their strict law to Mogadishu after they seized the capital last June, was seen by many to herald a new start in the anarchic country that has known no peace since the 1991 ouster of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre.

 

With carjackings on the rise, most bus services in the city stop at 6pm.

 

"Cars are stolen by masked people who dismantle them and sell their parts," said bus owner Ibrahim Sheikh Hassin, who had to pay a $350 ransom to reclaim one of his vehicles.

 

The violence, including the rape of two women at gunpoint earlier this week in southern Mogadishu, has many residents on edge, leaving them at the mercy of the criminals in a security vacuum left after the conflict.

 

"There are armed gangs everywhere in this city and no one is protecting the civilians. We ask Allah to save us from those assailants," resident Oald Ahmed Farah said.

 

Despite government pledges to pacify Mogadishu and protect civilians, many residents have fled or are making preparations to leave the city, despite having put up with almost two decades of violent chaos and warfare.

 

"We are expecting to flee the town because we cannot stay between gangs that kill people and the flying mortar shells," Halimo Addow Sheikh, a mother of three, said.

 

An early morning incident Sheikh witnessed, in which four people were killed in fighting over a mobile phone, led her to make the decision to leave to escape not only insecurity but the haunting echo of the victims' screams.

 

"Is that what we will wait to come upon us? No, we must leave this town," she vowed.

 

The weak regime, now awaiting a legion of peacekeepers to help provide stability, blames the surge in violence on the Islamists, who vowed to carry out guerrilla-style attacks on the government and their foreign allies.

 

"This is a nasty work of the remnants of the defeated Islamic Court Union people," Deputy Defence Minister Salat said.

 

"Those elements cannot change the course of history in modern Somalia. They want to take the country hostage but their efforts and aim will be crippled," he said.

 

In areas under government patrol, insecurity has "declined dramatically", Jelle said, explaining that authorities are avoiding a large-scale operation in order to protect civilians.

 

"We care about people in the capital, so my government is avoiding the use of massive force. A responsible government would not like to see people killed by collateral damage," he said

 

Source: AFP, Feb 16, 2007