The allure of the Somali capital’s deadly hardware and rush for quick cash in order to earn a living is as mortal as it is powerful: no wonder it is one of the most dangerous cities in the world.
From sidearms and sub-machine guns to ”technicals”, modified anti-aircraft artillery or heavy machine guns mounted on the back of pick-up trucks, all are open for barter, and nobody makes a fuss about it.
Tax-free trade in software, electronics, foodstuffs and clothes also flourishes inside bullet-charred buildings and makeshift stalls, mostly along the streets of the capital’s largest Bakara Market, amid fears of death.
Security has been an everyday business affair since the government of dictator Mohammed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991, giving way to a rapid collapse of tools of statehood — penal code, security apparatus and national infrastructure.
The rate of unemployment is ever on the rise, but people still need cash to live.
To make ends meet, terrifying gangs of gunmen roaming the streets of Mogadishu have replaced the police force to offer security to local dignitaries, visiting journalists and aid workers, at a good price.
”The high rate of unemployment in Mogadishu is the main cause of insecurity,” said Mogadishu-based politician Abdinur Ahmed Darman, the leader of the United Somali Republic Party.
”Politics cannot help, but maybe more investments might turn around the hopeless situation and help create more job opportunities,” Darman said, explaining that the need to make money lures most people into the murky business of gun-slinging.
In June, Darman was elected by about 5 000 supporters as Somalia’s president after months of backdoor negotiations with unarmed people, but his influence is barely felt beyond his tiny pockets in Mogadishu and parts of southern Somalia.
Despite having uniformed bodyguards, his safety lies in the hands of rival factions when he steps outside his stronghold, which stands only 200m from where gunmen guard the household of transitional national government President Abdulkassim Salat Hassan.
Many of the gunmen, hired mostly by six principal warlords in Mogadishu, concede that their business is murky, but they are there to stay, until an attractive job deal rolls by.
”Although armed protection is not the best job, it is the only one available,” said Ahmed Abdullahi (20), brandishing his Kalashnikov, while watching Manchester United clash with Newcastle over the weekend.
”I will only leave my gun and accept demobilisation if I get a decent job,” he said, explaining that any forceful attempts to demobilise them without a deal in exchange will mean bloody warfare.
For a visitor to Mogadishu, the emptiness of Bakara market, the most popular arms trading post, may be too odd a sight to believe, unless one is told why.
”Artillery pieces, ammunition for high-calibre guns and landmines are only brought to the market when serious buyers ask for them,” said a dealer who gave his name only as Yusuf.
Yusuf explained that dealers only display obsolete weapons as a mark of identity.
For a few, money flows freely in this blood-soaked capital, once known as the ”Pearl of the Indian Ocean,” because of lucrative deals on illicit arms and tax-free goods, but for ordinary Somalis, affording three meals a day is ”fiction”, according to street hawker Abdisamad Yasin.
”One meal a day is enough and the idea of having three meals is almost a science fiction movie for most people,” Yasin said.
”Unless you get into money-guns or any other business, or depend on relatives abroad, you are doomed,” Yasin explained. — Sapa-AFP