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Somalia: Govt Creates Force to Keep Peace At Its Bakara Market
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The Nation (Nairobi)
26 March 2008
Posted to the web 25 March 2008
Abdulkadir Khalif
Mogadishu
Somalia has finally created a force to provide security at its famous Bakara market in the capital Mogadishu.
Although there has been no official word from either the government or the business community, the men in green trousers and yellow shirts were spotted patrolling the roads criss-crossing the country's largest shopping centre a the weekend.
The unarmed guards were keeping watch on all movements inside the largely open-air shopping centre, and their main responsibility seemed to be maintaining security and enforcing order in the lawless market.
Bakara market has lately been hit by violence, with frequent clashes pitting forces of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and their Ethiopian backers on one side against insurgents serving opposition interests on the other.
The battles, which have been among the most brutal in the area, have interrupted business at the market, with pro-TFG forces at one point being accused of looting private property.
The accusations put the government on the spot, and Prime Minister Nur Hussein Hassan apologised for the forces' bad conduct.
The premier is a trained financier who served as an anti-graft officer in the police force in the 1960s and is believed to have helped the local business people and the TFG officials reach a compromise.
"Leaders of the business community will be blamed if there is insecurity in the market now that they have been allowed to have their own guards," remarked a regular shopper.
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In the past few days, the TFG army has been withdrawing from strategic junctions around the eastern edge of the market, notably Howlwadaag and Aden Adde. The move has reduced conflict and eased movement of people and goods.
Attempts to get any information on the guards bore little fruit, with the chairman of the Somali Business Council, Mohamud Abdikarim Gabayre, only promising, "We shall soon make an official announcement regarding the new force."
But as the local residents await official word on the guards, they call them "the force for the security of Bakara market".
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