OWN CORRESPONDENT, Mogadishu | Monday
BUSINESSMEN allied to Somalia’s new president have flown a large shipment of fake bank notes into the capital to help finance the formation of the country’s first government in almost a decade.
The notes arrived at an airstrip about 90 km outside Mogadishu and were escorted into Mogadishu by about 50 battlewagons and 600 militiamen.
The businessmen who organised the shipment said it contained notes representing about 30bn Somali shillings (almost $3m) but sources said it was three times that amount.
The use of fake cash is nothing new in Somalia – clan warlords have brought several huge shipments into Mogadishu over the past four years.
Each time it happens, the Somali shilling loses value. On Sunday, the exchange rate in the sprawling Bakara market was 11 000 shillings to the dollar, down almost 10% from Friday.
The notes, printed in Canada, were expected to be used to pay for the militia force put together by allies of Somalia’s recently elected President Abdiqassim Salad Hassan to provide security for him, his team of ministers and a new 245-member parliament.
It was also to go to help pay for accommodating members of the new government and parliament in Mogadishu hotels.
Somalia has been without any central authority since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in early 1991 and civil war erupted between the country’s rival clans.
Abdiqassim Salad faces the huge task of setting up a government from scratch, resurrecting basic social services and rebuilding Somalia’s shattered economy.
He is bitterly opposed by clan warlords in Mogadishu and the northern regions of Somaliland and Puntland, which have set up their own governments.
His government exists in name alone and has not yet made any serious attempt to establish control over the chaotic city.
One effect of the collapse of the last Somali government in 1991 was the disappearance of the central bank which until then had issued the country’s currency. – Reuters