Distorted woofers blare out Britney Spears tracks, noisy hawkers are back and deafening gunfire is frequent: the familiar chaos has made a swift return after Mogadishu’s brief brush with Islamist rule.
On the streets of the Somali capital, vendors hawk bunches of the mild narcotic herb khat and FM radio stations belt out tunes by the scantily clad blonde bombshell Spears or the Mogadishu Stars, a rag-tag band whose members went to ground after being flogged for performing ”unholy” songs.
Frequently, machine-gun fire rattles the city, this time pitting remnant Islamist fighters against the city’s new guardians of law and order: Ethiopian troops backing Somali government forces.
It is back to business as usual for residents of the Indian Ocean city who, having endured 16 years of anarchy, were subjected to a new era of austerity after a coalition of Islamists crushed the country’s warlords last June.
At the height of their rule, they banned pop music, shut cinemas and photo shops, flogged petty offenders and presided over public executions in a rule that drew comparisons to the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
But attempts to impose a sense of discipline rule came to an abrupt end on December 28 when the Islamists fled as Ethiopian forces approached the capital.
”We officially started operating the cinema today by screening popular American movies,” said movie-house operator Mohamed Ali. ”We started planning for reopening as soon as the Islamists fled Mogadishu.”
Outside a cinema hall, a giant poster reads: ”Today’s show — Indiana Jones, Denzel Washington, Raja Kumal and English Premier League.”
”If we are showing the Uefa Cup, English Premier League and Italy’s Serie A, then one has to pay 3 000” shillings (22 United States cents), said another cinema owner, Salat Ahmed.
Many residents insist they do not care who is in charge of a city that has been the scene of an almost constant power battle since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
”We are now selling khat freely on the streets. Business is back to normal and we are no longer hiding to sell this stuff,” said Shera Mohamed, a trader.
”I support everyone who lets me chew my khat, that’s all,” said one customer, Ali Sidi Farah.
Despite resentment about some of their hard-line edicts, the Islamists also won a degree of respect for managing to restore law and order, a scarce commodity in a country where firearms are common currency.
The entry of Ethiopian troops alongside soldiers from the weak interim Somali government, which was based in the provincial town of Baidoa, ushered in a new spate of deadly violence. Residents now say they are wary once more of venturing out on the streets.
”To stay indoors at a time like this really shows there is a mess. We feel the instability and it is attributed to the government and its Ethiopian allies,” said Mohamed Ali Siyad.
”This government brought bad times with it,” added Kadijo Mumin Hashi.
Others are still frowning at the return of the city’s trademark habits. ”This is evil action. Khat is a narcotic drug, and the Islamic sharia law does not allow people to use narcotics,” said Muslimo Moalim Isak.
There is little sign of the new rulers asserting their authority. A more familiar sight is of militiamen armed to the teeth mingling among the vast ranks of jobless youths.
Most sidewalks are strewn with fetid piles of rubbish that profile the city’s daily life: bullet casings mingling with scraps of spaghetti — the favourite food of Somalians.
Downtown lie remains of the US military helicopter that was forced out of the skies in a 1993 battle between US rangers and Somali militiamen, and which was the focus of the best-selling book and movie Black Hawk Down. — Sapa-AFP