The chaos in Somalia took an ugly turn on Wednesday when full-scale fighting broke out in Mogadishu and furious crowds mutilated the bodies of government soldiers, chanting, “We will burn you alive!” The scene was reminiscent of 1993, when Somalis turned on American peacekeepers and dragged their bodies through the streets. Those images and the loss of 18 American soldiers in a single battle, the infamous “Black Hawk Down” episode, led to a swift American withdrawal.This time the targets were Ethiopian troops and the soldiers of Somalia’s transitional government, both reviled by many people in Mogadishu, Somalia’s chaotic capital. Residents are now beginning to fear that this transitional government is headed in the same direction as the 13 transitional governments that came before it — into a vortex of clan violence and anarchy that has made Somalia an icon of
The recent injection of a small force of African Union peacekeepers does not seem to have made a difference. At dawn on Wednesday, Ethiopian and government soldiers stormed into a neighborhood in southern Mogadishu to disarm gunmen there. Instead, witnesses said, they were greeted by dozens of masked insurgents who blasted them with rocket-propelled grenades. More than 15 people were killed, including several government soldiers and possibly two Ethiopians.
The neighborhood is home to several clans that feel alienated by the transitional government and was a stronghold of the Islamist movement that took over the city and much of south-central Somalia last year, before being defeated by Ethiopian and government soldiers in December. Witnesses to Wednesday’s melee said a frenzied crowd seized the bodies, dragged them through the streets and set them on fire. Some residents said that when gasoline was poured over the bodies and matches struck, a few of the soldiers were still alive. “It was disgusting,” said Nura Maalin Mohammed, a shopkeeper who works near where the soldiers were burned. “If these people are trying to say this was done in the name of Islam, it’s a fallacy. May God have mercy on them.”
Somalia was not supposed to be like this anymore. Over the past several months, Ethiopia, the United States, the United Nations and the African Union have invested more hope and resources in the country than at any time since the failed peacekeeping mission of the early 1990s. It was only with EthiopiaÂ’s military might that SomaliaÂ’s transitional government was able to overthrow the Islamist movement. The United States provided intelligence to the Ethiopians and sent in a small contingent of Special Forces ground troops after American officials labeled the Islamists a terrorist threat.
Since then, though, Mogadishu seems as unsafe as ever. The Islamists had managed during their short reign to stop the clan bloodletting and provide a modicum of security. But the transitional government has had a difficult time replicating this. In the past month, Somali hospital officials say, more than 100 civilians have been killed across the country in battles between insurgents and government forces. Assassinations are on the rise. In the capital, thousands of residents who have lived through years of mayhem are choosing to pack up their things and leave now. “We can’t live like this,” said Rahmo Dahir, a mother of four. “My children will be in shock.”
Analysts say the problem is that despite all the talk of the transitional government being a multi-clan enterprise, it is dominated by the Darod clan, which hails from northeast Somalia, and it has marginalized many branches of the Hawiye clan, which traditionally controls Mogadishu. Elders on all sides agree that until there is genuine reconciliation, there will be no peace. “We don’t want to get consumed by these rivalries,” said Ahmed Hussein Sheikh, an elder of the Galgel clan. “We want a government.”
The transitional government plans to hold a reconciliation conference in April and has said it wants to disarm Mogadishu before then. That was one reason why 1,500 Ugandan troops, working under African Union auspices, were airlifted into Somalia earlier this month. So far, though, the Ugandans have steered clear of the street fighting and have been reluctant to get between Somalia’s heavily armed clans. On Tuesday, African Union officials pleaded with member states to contribute more troops because only a handful of nations — mostly American allies, like Ghana and Nigeria — have answered the call.