Internet Out in al: Bakara Market, Mogadishu Somalia

Nairobi — Telecommunications companies based in Somalia's largest open-air market have been hit by stray shells in the latest round of fighting, leading to internet failure in the past four days.

"Our internet service has been down since 24 May," a senior official of an internet service provider, who requested anonymity, told IRIN on 26 May.

The official said many people's livelihoods depend on internet use; "for many businesses and journalists, the internet is their lifeline".

He said his company was trying to revive the service. "We depend on the telecoms companies and when they get hit we are also hit."

A local radio journalist told IRIN he was unable to send his reports to his station based outside the country. "It is very frustrating."

The three major telecommunications companies, Nationlink, Hormood and Olympic, have their most important equipment at Bakara market, which has been a flashpoint in the fighting between insurgents and government troops backed by African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) peacekeepers in the past two weeks.

"When we were setting up, in the 1990s, Bakara market was the safest place but now it is the most dangerous," another official of a telecommunications company said.

The official told IRIN the headquarters of Hormood - the largest telecommunications firm in the country - in Bakara had been repeatedly hit by shells, killing and injuring staff and destroying equipment.

"It is not easy for us to move the equipment we have here, so we are caught in the middle of a war zone," the official said.

In the past eight days, government and AMISOM troops have intensified an offensive to dislodge Al-Shabab insurgents who control Bakara market and parts of the city.

AMISOM spokesman Maj Paddy Ankunda told IRIN on 27 May that the mission was urging civilians not to expose themselves to crossfire.

"We have secured the road nearest Bakara as well as the southern and western edges of the market; I cannot put a time tag on how long the fighting will go on but we are urging civilians to get out of entanglement [in the fighting] as they will become increasingly vulnerable," Ankunda said.

"About 80 percent of civilians [in Al-Shabab-held areas] have left for areas controlled by the government because of insecurity; if Al-Shabab chooses to continue fighting, they will bear the responsibility for the damage caused to Bakara market," Ankunda said

Al Shabaab Blocks Roads into al Bakara Market to Stop Defections

Mogadishu (Mareeg)-Unidentified dead bodies were seen early on Sunday morning at the Industrial Road (Jidka-Warshadaha) in the capital Mogadishu, residents said.
The dead bodies were two old men who were seen laying on the road after daybreak prayer at frontlines between Islamist militias of Al-shabab and the African union peacekeeping forces, in particular Burundians those have a military base there, reports said.

No one could exactly confirm who have killed these old men and no one identified them yet.

The killing of these men comes as Islamist militias of Al-shabab were reported to have cut off two main streets through war zones around Bakara market that old, and poor people who are not able to pay bus-fares used to go to their homes on foot passing the risk ways there.

Al-shabab forces refused people to use those ways for a fear of their militias surrendering to Somali government pass those streets, a porter in Bakara market told Mareeg this morning.

People in the capital, in particular those who usually go to Bakara market and search for their daily bread face dangers from warring groups in Mogadishu.

The Rests @ Mareeg

Somalia's Death Culture

MOGADISHU - Sitting on a mat at home between taking orders for arms on his two mobile phones, Osman Bare gives thanks for the riches flowing from Somalia's war.

"I have only been in the weapon business five years, but I have erected three villas. I have also opened shops for my two wives," said the 40-year-old, one of about 400 Somali men operating in Mogadishu's main weapons market.

"Peace means bankruptcy for us."

Awash with weapons

• Weapons are captured, sold and recycled constantly between both sides, experts say. Many arms have come from Ethiopian soldiers who intervened in Somalia between 2006 and early 2009.
  
• African Union peacekeepers have been accused of trafficking arms, and regional bodies say Eritrea -- among others -- is funneling weapons toward the rebels.
  
• Weapons are also said to pour across the porous borders of Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia, arriving by plane and through seas infested by pirates who are themselves armed to the teeth.

The Mogadishu arms market is just one part of an illicit global arms bazaar.

Largest stock ever

• Dealers like Bare say the main Irtogte market, within the sprawling Bakara commercial area of Mogadishu, is holding its largest stock ever, and gunrunners are rolling in money.
  
• The risks of being robbed, cheated or shot are high, however, and prices fluctuate greatly. They are at a low right now due to the abundance of supply.
  
• "The good thing is that our goods are not perishable," Bare said. "We get a lot of cash, but we are always in terror."
  
• Dealers say they can be arrested, or even beheaded by the Islamists, if caught outside the market.
  

"But inside our market, we are cocks. There are hundreds of retailers and wholesalers and each has four well-armed guards."

He said masked Islamists once picked him up, blindfolded him and took him to a well-known execution house when he was found carrying a U.S. M16 rifle ordered by a pirate.

As he was being beaten by gun-butt, a friend with good contacts in the al Shabaab insurgent movement came and rescued him.

"The government is better than Islamists -- they do not kill people. They take your property and jail you only for few days," Bare said.

While Islamists come to the market for purchases, traders said, arms are delivered to government and other buyers.

"We dismantle weapons and then secretly take them to anyone who needs to buy."

With the exception of pistols from Yemen, North Korean AK-47s, and hand-grenades from government supplies, most arms are second-hand, the dealers said.

One of the cheapest items is an Indian AK-47, at $140 each, but fighters disparage its poor quality compared to the heat-resistant North Korean version ($600) and the light Russian one ($400). At the top of the range of light weapons, the most expensive pistol, Russian-made, goes for $1,000.

Hand-grenades go for $25 each, landmines $100.

No shortage of sources
There is no shortage of sources for such weapons.

More fighting, more cash

• Somali bankers say the more the fighting, the more cash that arrives by wire transfers.
  
• "Last month has been very nice to us," said one banker, referring to the flare-up in Mogadishu.
  

The Rest @ MSNBC

Somalia: 10 killed in Mogadishu's Bakara Market shelling
27 Sep 27, 2008 - 4:31:05 PM

MOGADISHU, Somalia Sep 27 (Garowe Online) - Somali insurgents waging war in the country's capital Mogadishu used mortars to target Aden Adde International Airport on Saturday as an African Union military plane landed, Radio Garowe reported.

Several mortars hit inside airport grounds but caused no damage and the AU military plane landed safely, according to AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) spokesman Major Bahoku Barigye.

Wounded civilians Sep 27/GOSomali government forces responded to the mortar attack by shelling the capital's Bakara Market, which the interim government has long suspected is home base for anti-government rebels.

AMISOM peacekeepers driving tanks entered city streets in a show of force.
At least 10 civilians were killed and 17 others wounded in the shelling, witnesses told Radio Garowe.

Al Shabaab militants claimed responsibility for the mortar attack. Last week, al Shabaab issued a threat to shoot down airplanes landing at Mogadishu's airport.

It was the third mortar attack on the airport in a week, sparking street battles and artillery barrages that have killed upwards of 50 civilians.

At least three Ethiopian soldiers were killed in a roadside explosion as their convoy drove towards Mogadishu, witnesses reported.

"Ethiopian army trucks who came from Afgoye and were heading to Mogadishu were targeted in a heavy explosion and I saw dead bodies fall out of the cars," said witness Khadar Mohamed, who fled Mogadishu violence months ago.

Ethiopian soldiers opened fire in panic but no one was wounded in the subsequent gunfire.
Islamic Courts spokesman Abdirahim Isse Addow claimed responsibility for the roadside bomb, adding that Ethiopian forces "suffered heavy casualties."

The Rest @ Garowe Online