...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
Mission in Somalia (Amisom) and the Somali police force seized a large store containing ammunition left by A
l-Shabaab... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban. The organization's current leader is Ibrahim Haji Jama Mee'aad, also known as Ibrahim
al-Afghani. Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a Kenyan al-Qaeda member, is considered the group's military leader...
in Mogadishu.
The ammunition was found at Bakara market, the largest trading centre in Mogadishu, which had served as a base for Al-Shabaab cut-throats before the cut-throats announced to have vacated their positions in the city on 6th of August.
According to Lieutenant Colonel Paddy Ankunda, the front man of the African force, the radical loyalists of Al-Shabaab had stores with large quantities of ammunition.
He added that Amisom peacekeepers will do all they can to ensure security. He said: "We will continue making the city safer for the people of Somalia. "Al-Shabaab had hidden large quantities of arms and explosives in the city."
He added that some are buried in the vacated positions.
Amisom stated that it uncovered 137 rockets of 155 mm each and had loaded them in trucks before removing the ammunition from the market.
The peacekeepers were assisted by contracted Western experts in explosives, urban warfare and how to conduct DNA tests.
On Monday, the team also discovered a workshop that was assumed to have been used by Al-Shabaab to fabricate home-made bombs and other explosives.
Lt. Col Ankunda added: "The workshop was the largest facility found so far that was used to produce deadly artifacts."
Shells for mortars, Rocket Propelled Grenades (GRBG) and other guns and rockets were found.
Cutting machines and other devises indicated that the place was a small factory.
On 10th of August, the New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
published a report that Bancroft Global Development, an American private security company was engaged in training Amisom troops in Somalia.
The Western experts have dug out explosives that were haphazardly abandoned in some places, according to residents in areas abandoned by Al-Shabaab fighters in Mogadishu.
Meanwhile,
...back at the wrecked scow, a single surviver held tightly to the smashed prow...
the UN's World Food Programme said today that the "vast majority" of its aid relief to famine-stricken Mogadishu was reaching those in need, in response to claims that some is being stolen, adds AFP.
"The WFP is confident that the vast majority of humanitarian food is reaching starving people in Mogadishu and saving lives every day," WFP spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume told news hounds.