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| Africa Horn |
| The wages of chaos |
| 2006-05-31 |
| The guns of Mogadishu are seldom silent. Since Somalia's last functioning government fell in 1991, the sound of militiamen clearing their weapons by firing into the air has become as common as the muezzin's call to prayer. This year, however, the bullets' trajectories have been horizontal rather than vertical. More than 300 people - mostly civilians, including women and children - have been killed during battles than have raged across the city. More than 100 have died during the past week alone. Militiamen have taken over the hospital run by the Red Cross. The fledgling government is stuck in Baidoa, a town to the east of the capital, powerless to intervene. It is the sort of scenario that normally acts like a magnet for foreign correspondents. Jet into the city, interview a few combatants, nip into the hospital to see a few wounded civilians, and you have a colourful piece ready to run alongside a picture of teen brandishing an AK-47. In this story, there is even the added spice of clandestine CIA involvement and ties to al-Qaida and the "war on terror". Yet the number of western journalists that have been in Mogadishu this year could be counted on one hand - and that may be an overstatement. It is not due to a lack of interest from editors, but rather an accurate assessment of the risks for a foreigner in a city that is as unpredictable as it is inherently dangerous. (A BBC producer, Kate Peyton, was shot outside her hotel in Mogadishu in an apparently motiveless murder in early 2005). Instead, it is left to a brave few Somali journalists working for the wire services to chronicle the mayhem. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #1 And the sensible Somalians have been emigrating for a decade or more. How many have come to America, either legally or illegally? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-05-31 18:19 |