Minneapolis: Somalis Gather to Help War Victims in Mogadishu

By Abdirahman Aynte

     Minnesota Monitor
Sunday, April 22, 2007

 

Minneapolis, MN (HOL) - Nasro Tahliil donated $500 to help treat thousands of civilians injured in the recent fighting in Mogadishu, the troubled capital of Somalia. She was one of more than 700 Somalis who crammed at a Minneapolis Convention Center room Saturday to fundraise for the victims of the war.

 

“The world community turned its back on us,” she said. “We have to take matters into our hands.”

 

According to local and international relief agencies, more than 2,000 people were killed in the fiercest fighting in Mogadishu over the last three weeks. Somali government troops, who are being bolstered by the Ethiopian army, are battling resistance forces. 

 

The Ethiopians entered Mogadishu early January after defeating the Union of Islamic Courts, which controlled much of Somalia during the second half of 2006. Most Somalis see the Ethiopians as an occupying force.

 

Prof Abdi I. Samatar & Abdirizak Haji Hussein

“The resistance is a patriotic, nationalistic movement,” said Abdirizak Haji Hussein, former prime minister of Somalia. “We must support it by all means.”

 

Organizers of the event said the best support is to send urgent financial support to hospitals that are overflowing with the injured, and to help the nearly half a million displaced people. Images taken from medical facilities show often severe wounds worsened by scarce medical equipment and medicine.

 

The World Food Program has accused the Ethiopians and the government of blocking the passage of food to the displaced. The government claimed that the food has expired.

 

But one thing that didn’t seem to expire is the energy of the hundreds of weary-looking Somalis who collected on Saturday more than $30,000 in about 30 minutes. The announcer said even a 6-year-old boy dropped his $20 allowance in the donations bucket. And one speaker, Abia Ali, a community organizer, couldn’t contain her tears as she told the stories of two women, who were recently been raped by the Ethiopian soldiers in Mogadishu.

 

‘The terror of war’

 

The acts of rape and the killing, which is being investigated by the European Union, amount to a “terror of war,” said Prof. Abdi Samatar of the University of Minnesota. And it’s facilitated by the “War on Terror,” he added. He reminded: “Even former South African President, Nelson Mandela, was labeled a ‘terrorist’ in his struggle against the apartheid government.”

 

Samatar said the divide and conquer plan by Ethiopia worked in many regions in Somalia, including Somaliland and Puntland. “And now Ethiopia is promoting a sectarian agenda in Mogadishu,” he said, urging participants to form a sustained “anti-colonial movement.”

 

 Abdirahman Aynte can be reached at [email protected]