Mogadishu gunmen turn up 'Somali music'

[Jabhad]

Mogadishu gunmen turn up 'Somali music'

19 Jan 2007 11:13:00 GMT

 

 

19 Jan 2007 11:13:00 GMT

 

The price of guns is usually a good indication of what's happening in local conflicts. In the past few days, demand for weapons has soared in Mogadishu's Bakara arms market, Britain's Independent newspaper reports. Before you could pick up a rocket-propelled grenade launcher for just $400. Now you won't get change from $1,000. And AK-47s are flying off the shelves.

 

 

"The Islamic Courts are arming now," one trader tells the newspaper. For six months, under the strict but stable rule of the Islamists, who purged squabbling warlords from the city, Mogadishu enjoyed a period of relative peace. The country director of Muslim Aid told me he'd been able to cut the number of armed guards protecting the office to five, compared with 17 in more risky times. The streets were calmer and aid workers could move around more easily - even without an armed escort sometimes.

 

 

But Mogadishu's respite from violence now appears to be over. Locals have a euphemistic name for the gunfire that rings out across the city, providing what the Independent describes as "a constant soundtrack to life in Mogadishu". They call it "Somali music". And someone's been cranking up the volume over the past few nights, the Independent reports.

 

The presence of the weak interim government in Mogadishu for the first time since it was installed in 2004, and tentative efforts to disarm and negotiate with warlords, haven't yet translated into a safer environment for the citizens of Mogadishu. The Independent warns that an insurgency has kicked off against Ethiopian troops, whose military muscle allowed the government to defeat the Islamists.

 

 

Members of a radical Islamic group called al-Shabaab have popped up again on the streets of Mogadishu with plans to ambush Ethiopian and Somali soldiers, the paper reports. Although Ethiopia is due to withdraw its forces soon, a leaflet has been distributed saying the Ethiopian "colonialists" will "face new insurgent operations and attacks".

 

The official line on the Islamists is that they've fled south and are hiding out near the Kenyan border, around Ras Kamboni. But it seems some are back and gearing up for a guerilla campaign in Mogadishu. That's unlikely to improve living conditions for Mogadishu's war-weary residents.

 

 

The Independent points out that life has barely changed for poverty-stricken Somalis. Whether it's the warlords, the Islamists or the government, there's no work - meaning precious little money to buy food. "I can't predict who is good. They are all alike. They do not create a society," Nasato Saciid, a 25-year-old mother of four, tells the newspaper.

 

A U.N. envoy said on Thursday Somalia had its best chance for peace in 16 years, and it shouldn't be wasted. But the optimism of politicians and diplomats isn't echoed by ordinary Somalis, who see no let up in their daily struggle to feed and educate their kids. "It is a very hard life and I don't expect it to get any better," Saciid says in the Independent.