Somali police destroy street stalls in Mogadishu
May 8, 2007 (MOGADISHU) — Police using sledgehammers and bulldozers demolished kiosks and other makeshift shops Tuesday in a move to boost security and restore this once-beautiful seaside capital, but many residents were left wondering how they will make a living.
The mass demolitions of stalls selling tea, vegetables and other small goods by the roadside left behind piles of corrugated metal sheets and wood planks.
“The campaign is aimed at ending illegal businesses built on the streets to help police perform security patrols and to revive the lost image of the capital,” said Mohamed Dheere, a former warlord who was recently named mayor of Mogadishu.
Dheere said the stalls were built illegally and without official approval. But this war-ravaged country was without an effective central government for more than a decade, forcing residents to support themselves in any way possible.
The current administration is trying to assert control after quelling a ferocious insurgency that killed more than 1,000 people since March. The militants, who are linked to an Islamic group that ruled Mogadishu for six quiet months last year, reject any secular government and vow to fight until Somalia becomes an Islamic state.
“We are happy to see the law and order returning but in the meantime we need to run our businesses,” said Saa’id Muqtar Ahmed, a 25-year-old welder who was carrying the remnants of his destroyed stall on his back.
Samsam Sheik Abdullahi, a mother of four whose tea kiosk was torn down Tuesday, said she has no idea how she will earn money now.
“My husband died three years ago,” she told The Associated Press. “This will lead my family into financial troubles, I have nowhere to turn.”
In March, troops from neighboring Ethiopia used tanks and attack helicopters to crush a growing insurgency linked to the Council of Islamic Courts, a hard-line religious movement that had controlled Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia for six months in 2006.
The group was driven from power in December by Somali and Ethiopian soldiers. The U.S. had accused the Islamic group of having ties to al-Qaida.
The militants reject any secular government, and vow to fight until Somalia becomes an Islamic state. The government declared victory in late April, but the militants have vowed to take back the city.
Somalia has been mired in chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned against each other. The western city of Baidoa, where the interim parliament is based, was dubbed the “City of Death” in the 1990s during a searing drought and famine. Mogadishu, once a beautiful seaside capital, is now a looted shantytown.
In another sign of the country’s troubles, its national union of journalists said Tuesday that a reporter, Mohammed Abdullahi Khalif, was killed in the crossfire Saturday when fighting broke out after soldiers stormed a gun market in the autonomous region of Puntland to retrieve a gun stolen from the army.
The actions of the Somali government mirror those of other African nations, including Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, all of which over the years have demolished street-side stalls and kiosks in major cities and towns, only for them to be rebuilt and the vendors to resume their business.
Vendors argue that they have no alternative to earning a livelihood, but the governments counter that the structures are illegal because they are built in areas not set out for kiosks or street stalls.
Many African nations have high unemployment rates, leading many to informal businesses to survive.
(AP)