Mogadishu, then and now

Then: Last September to be specific.

That played straight into the hands of the Islamists, who quickly built an army called the Shabab, or youth, made up of young, devout fighters, to overthrow the warlords. The Shabab wore green skull caps and little beards. They did not smoke cigarettes or chew qat, the popular narcotic leaf that had spurred so much of Mogadishu's madness.

People were impressed.

''Every day at noon women were driving to the front lines to bring these guys food,'' recalled Ali Iman Sharmarke, one of the founders of the HornAfrik television and radio station.

The warlords were steadily pushed back and soon could not trust anyone, including phone operators, whom they suspected of tapping their calls.

''We had no communication or leadership,'' said Col. Ali Warsame, whose warlord commander ended up fleeing Mogadishu on the back of a donkey and wearing a veil. By the first week of June, all the warlords had been defeated.

…The courts are now focusing on civil administration, with committees on sanitation, reconstruction, education and justice. Investment money is already flowing back in. The streets around Mogadishu's main market are clogged with trucks hauling logs and cement. To oversee all this, the Islamists have appointed university professors, including many educated abroad, to crucial posts.

One morning this week, hundreds of men volunteered for an Islamist-organized clean up. With the clap of his hands, the work leader sent them plunging into overgrown thickets to clear brush. ''It's an exchange,'' said Abdul Aziz Issah, one of the workers. ''They brought us peace, we give them work.''

This is now.

Just hours after the Islamist forces abandoned Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, militias loyal to the transitional government seized the city today in a stunning reversal of fortunes. According to residents, troops from the transitional government, along with Ethiopian soldiers who had been backing them up, poured into the capital from the outskirts of the city while militiamen within Mogadishu occupied key positions, like the port, airport and dilapidated presidential palace.

“The government has taken over Mogadishu,” a transitional government leader, Jama Fuuruh, told Reuters by telephone from Mogadishu’s port.

“We are now in charge."

Mogadishu’s new powers immediately had to deal with a rising level of chaos, as armed bandits swept the city and fragmented clan militia began to battle each other for the spoils of war. Witnesses said an intense gun battle raged around a former Islamist ammunition dump and that clan warlords had instantly reverted back to setting up roadside checkpoints and shaking down motorists for money. Many terrified residents stayed in their homes behind bolted doors and the few that ventured into the streets carried guns.

Via. I thought the ICU would have made a fight of Mogadishu. But never mind. I think we can all congratulate ourselves on a victory for freedom and enlightenment in the battle of ideas against Islamic fascism. No longer will fathers prevent their daughters from attending school. And if dad’s also unable to prevent daughter undergoing multiple rape by a passing war band, then it just goes to show that freedom isn’t free.

Comments

[dsquared]

It is all very ominous. As far as I can see, the ICU has disappeared from Mogadishu, but they weren't routed and more or less no prisoners were taken. They seem to have just made a calculation and departed the field. Need to get my copy of Che's book down from the shelf ... NB that people who are on the ropes in conflicts in the Horn of Africa have this habit of suddenly showing up in strength, with a load of shiny new missiles with Gulf State postmarks. Of course, the ICU might be heading off for eastern Sudan, where there is a very nervy little dispute with Eritrea.

[dsquared]

PS: I suspect that some of our mates in the professional philosophy game could while away a coffee break or two on the structural grammar of "militias loyal to the transitional government", specifically on whether "transitional" implicitly modifies "loyal" as well as "government".

[jamie]

Yeah, the ICU militias were last heard of helping themselves to manpads provided by Eritrean troops before vanishing from the capital.

This puts the Ethiopians in something of a quandary. If they retreat, the ICU can roll up the warlords anytime, but if they stay, they've got to hold down the country, which weakens them vis a vis Eritrea.

[dsquared]

I think you're right about the quandary - if so, then someone out there has got a copy of "Guerilla Warfare" by Guevara. Of course, "retiring into the desert" has quite a lot of cultural references in that part of Africa. Qaddaffi was always doing it. The big strength of Islamist political parties is always the (often quite erroneous) popular perception that they're personally very virtuous, and this could strengthen it.

[Alex]

..unless the midnight flit after all the bullshit about fighting to the last drop of everyone else's blood weakens it.

[Alex]

but then, c'est toujours comme ca...