Islam
Sailing to Somalia's Baghdad
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Sep 24, 2008 - 6:19:57 PM

ON BOARD THE GOLINA, Indian Ocean — The memory is still vivid in Captain Shoaib Siddiqui's mind when his ship used to safely dock in the Indian Ocean shores of Mogadishu long before its seas became a haven for gangs, smugglers and pirates.

"The port is under curfew," Siddiqui, the Pakistani master of the MV Golina cargo ship now docking in Mogadishu, told Agence France Presse (AFP) on Wednesday, September 24.

The beautiful blue shores of Mogadishu, once the destination for tourists from Europe, have become the by-word for violence and lawlessness.

The waters are now the kingdom of pirates armed with high-powered speedboats and rocket-propelled grenades, and gangs whose flourishing trades are arms and human trafficking.

The latest assignment of Siddiqui's cargo ship was to guide a World Food Program aid shipment to the Horn of Africa country, where millions of people are in a desperate need of urgent humanitarian assistance.

The voyage was made possible only by staying close to the Canadian navy frigate that escorted his Golina from the Kenyan port of Mombasa to the Somali shores.

If it was not for the Canadian navy guns, Siddiqui admits, his ship would have ended up under the mercy of pirates just like many others.

"They are well equipped. If we start answering, they have mortars, they could sink the boat."

Since January, pirates operating across Somalia's 3,700-kilometre coastline have attacked 59 ships, taking more than 300 crew members hostage.

They sometimes hold ships for weeks until huge ransoms are paid by governments or owners.

A Greek-owned ship with 19 sailors on board was seized on Sunday, September 22, becoming the 13th ship in the pirates' hands.

Somalia's Baghdad

Siddiqui remembers his first trip to Somalia 30 years ago when Mogadishu was known as "Asmara by the sea", in reference to the sophisticated Eritrean capital.

"At that time, Mogadishu was not the same," he insists.

"You could go walking in the streets at night no problem."

Now, after decades of bloodshed and destruction, Mogadishu has earned a new nickname: Baghdad by the sea.

"It's gone 200 years back," Siddiqui laments.

"You can see children, aged six or seven coming to sweep the cargos at night to make a little money," says the 46-year-old Captain.

"It's very bad. They should be studying at school."

Somalia, which has been without a central authority since 1991, has been ravaged by violence since the Ethiopian army invaded it in 2006 at the request of the interim government to oust the ruling Islamic Courts.

A deadly vicious cycle of violence has since claimed more than 6,000 lives and displaced thousands.

Hundreds fled Mogadishu on Wednesday after several days of heavy fighting between anti-government fighters and Somali troops, backed by the Ethiopian military.

At least seven civilians were killed by artillery fire in two districts of southern Mogadishu. Scores of people have been killed in recent days.

"I don't know why they are fighting each other," says Siddiqui. "There is nothing."

Source:IslamOnline.com