Sunday, June 18, 2006
Reuters
The stabilisation of Mogadishu after Islamist leaders ousted US-backed warlords has dealt a blow to pirates and given a boost to business in the Horn of Africa nation, a prominent Somali businessman said.
“We never had business like this before,” Abdulkadir Nur, who manages the strategic El Maan port just north of the Somali capital, said as six ships from Dubai unloaded wood, sugar and cooking oil on the beach behind him.
Considered one of the most powerful entrepreneurs in Mogadishu, Nur is a staunch supporter of the Islamic Courts. Earlier this month, in battles that killed at least 350 people, their militia ended a 15-year rule of the capital by warlords.
“Before, there was theft of trucks, kidnappings, but since the Islamic courts have taken over, there has been no trouble,” said Nur, who chairs the Benadir Maritime and Port Operation which runs El Maan, Somalia’s largest port.
Militia from the Islamic Courts Union walk at the El Maan Port, north of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on Friday. Islamists have been consolidating their hold on the region. “Now Mogadishu is 90 per cent safe,” he said. “Look at the price of munitions –down. That’s good for peace, and so for business.”
Support for the Islamic Courts’ militia from local businesses tired of being extorted by warlords was considered a critical factor in their defeat.
“I am happy with the outcome of the war,” added Nur who has a variety of business interests, in an interview late yesterday on the shore at El Maan. Our people are 100 per cent happy,” .
As well as increased trade, another tangible gain from the extra security since the Islamists took over was a reduction in piracy, Nur and colleagues said.
In the absence of government since the toppling of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, local pirates had turned the waters off Somalia into some of the most dangerous in the world.
Now Nur’s colleague said the pirates are afraid. “They heard that we have an army and that the courts have become active,” said Ahmed Moallim, a director of El Maan port.
“Before, we had two or even three attacks a day. Now, you see, the ships are coming in more safely,” he said, adding that a new anti-pirate militia had been set up with more than 100 boats to patrol Somali territorial waters.
A bustling, natural port with 10,000 workers and an annual discharge of some 300,000 tonnes of food, El Maan’s facilities are an object lesson in Somali ingenuity. A single, floating pipe offloads oil from a tanker just a few hundred metres offshore. Further down the beach, barges bulging with wood, sacks of sugar, and cooking oil containers ferry backwards and forwards from waiting ships.
Source: Reuters, June 18, 2006
