Somali soldiers ride on a vehicle in Mogadishu, 2007. Gunmen stormed a warehouse run by the International Labour Organisation office in southern Somalia and stole construction equipment. (AFP/File/Jose Cendon)From War Is Boring:
Mogadishu’s international airport, which along with the city’s seaport is all that connects much of this war-torn country to the outside world, effectively has been shut down by threats from Islamic insurgents. Only military flights are coming in; civilian traffic has all but stopped.
Mark my words, this is bad.
Last year African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu told me their goal was to keep open the airport, seaport and critical road junctures so that the international community would have a way into Somalia in order to address security and humanitarian crises. But since then the insurgents’ power has grown. Despite ongoing U.S. airstrikes, Islamists now control huge swaths of southern Somalia, and they’ve got sufficient heavy weapons to engage the peacekeepers in devastating mortar duels. Despite another 400 peacekeepers arriving just this week (pictured), the insurgents have the upper hand. When two weeks ago they told air carriers to stay away from Mogadishu, the carriers heeded their words.
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My Comment: This is going to turn out as a humanitarian disaster .... again.
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