Why Mogadishu is the Nightmare of our Nation?

by Aden Mohamed Ismail
Friday, August 22, 2008

Mogadishu

Many Somalis and none Somalis assumed once that any forces or group that captures the ex-Capital of Somalia will rule what was once known as Somali Republic. This assumption might had certain legitimate or made sense when Somalia was not completely destroyed as country or was in the state of a fragile country on the world map. Since the bloody expulsion of the later Said Barre dictatorial regime from Mogadishu and the followed tragic and brutal civilian mass exodus, Mogadishu town, the Somali Pearl at Indian Ocean became a synonym for Cannibalism, Barbarism, and Religious fanaticism.

In contrary to what many incorrigible clan agitators in the Diaspora wants us to believe, Mogadishu refused to be ruled not only by Abdiallhi Yusuf led TFG but Mogadishu as the heart land of Somalia, refused to be ruled by Ali Mahdi, the later General Adiid, Abdi Qasim, countless clan warlords and many religious groups. Mogadishu sabotaged and declined brutally many honourable and countless local or internationally peace deals for Somalia whereby Arta Conference was the most remarkable peace conference for Somalia as a whole.

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It was only the initial ICU supported by the people of Mogadishu who managed to "control" the town for few months but they failed by setting up a peaceful and functioning administration for Mogadishu let alone the conflicting Banadir region of today. Instead, the ICU actors in Mogadishu agreed unnecessarily only to destroy a weak TFG in Baidao which was partially supported by International community. The ICU actors miscalculated the reality in Baidao and they blindly decided to attack a TFG force which was their smallest common ground for ICU leaders since they failed to stabilise the situation in the terrible town of Somalia, Mogadishu.

Following that, neither UNISOM nor ICU, nor criminal warlords, nor nominated political leaders including the present corrupted political class in Baidao, nor the self declared traditional elders of Hawiye clan managed to settle this terrible Mogadishu.

The question which logically arises from this brief elaboration is why Mogadishu is against all peaceful settlements for Somalia? In Mogadishu we aren't dealing with newly deported fighters, or religiously motivated killers but we are dealing with the same fighters since the collapse of the Somali regime. These fighters fought for all warlords. ICU later benefited and recruited also their fighters from the same hopeless young generations who were born or grown up in Mogadishu and have never seen anything else rather the fighting.

Those young and brutal Mogadischu Rampoes who are still fighting today in the town has been misused by every scrupulous power and wealthy hungry warlord in Mogadischu. These killing kids have been motivated sometimes by useless and vague clan agitations, sometimes by religious propaganda and consequently they deleted as many lives as they could which includes the best Somali brains in Mogadishu. In addition to that, they raped countless weak Somali young women and killed thousands of innocent people in Mogadishu.

To call a spade a spade, it is an opened secret that many propagandists in Somalia and in the Diaspora wants us to believe that the never-ending war in Mogadishu is a clan war. This is nonsense and to break the taboo in the subject, the war in Mogadishu is neither religious nor a clan or sub clan war but it is a social and existential war. Somali academicians and Intellectuals where ever we are failed to address the true background of the issue and instead we swim with the political waves and changes in Mogadishu.

The displaced people of Mogadishu who are vegetating between Afgooye and Mogadishu doesn't need propagandists who are comfortably enjoying their lives in the peaceful Diaspora but they need concrete prospective for their future which will certainly contribute to the settlement of Mogadishu and in the long run might lead to a sincere reconciliation of our bleeding nation.

In Mogadishu, fathers are fighting and their sons see in them as heroes not only since the Ethiopian are in Mogadishu. Because fathers in Mogadishu have nothing to offer to their families and so they became a shinning example for their kids through killing. This is why Mogadishu became the nightmare of our nation and if we don't discuss openly the deeply rooted social background of the conflict, Mogadishu will remain that what it was, today and tomorrow.
Consequently the recent peace deal in Djibouti will go to the history and be remembered as another useless badly orchestrated Somali peace circus.

Aden Mohamed Ismail
E-mail: [email protected]

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