A district commissioner in Somalia's war-ravaged capital Mogadishu has demanded the withdrawal of African Union peacekeepers (AMISOM) after accusing the peacekeepers of transforming the conflict into a "business," Radio Garowe reports.

Mr. Ahmed Da'i, the district commissioner of Mogadishu's Wadajir district, told reporters Monday that Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia officials and AMISOM peacekeepers "want the conflict to continue."

"It is not a war to bombard civilian centers with missiles each day. War is where one group defeats another, but AMISOM troops who help the TFG have made this [conflict] a business," Wadajir DC Mr. Da'i said during a Monday press conference.

Wadajir is a district located in Mogadishu's southwestern part and is home to TFG troops who have pushed back Al Shabaab during a number of insurgent offensives to seize the district.

There are no AMISOM peacekeepers based in Wadajir district, but AMISOM troops are based in districts surrounding Wadajir.

"The countries contributing troops to AMISOM must withdraw their troops if they are not helping win the war, and they must remember that if this conflict in Somalia continues, then the war will come to their doors," said Mr. Da'i.

Uganda and Burundi are the only African countries to have contributed troops to the 8,000-strong AMISOM force deployed since March 2007 to bolster the weak TFG in Mogadishu.

During his press conference in Mogadishu, Mr. Da'i accused TFG officials of wanting the conflict to continue for their "personal financial benefit."

"I urge the Mogadishu public to defeat Al Shabaab, but our leaders [TFG] are busy collecting international donations and benefiting financially from the conflict," Mr. Da'i said.

He went on to accuse international aid groups of "failing to deliver humanitarian assistance" in parts of Mogadishu.

"The aid groups are part of the problems in Somalia. They [aid groups] claim that Al Shabaab prevents them from helping the people, but they [aid groups] do not bring assistance to peaceful parts of Mogadishu," he concluded.

Mr. Da'i has been the Wadajir district commissioner in recent years and has led the resistance against Al Shabaab's expansion into the district.

TFG leaders have not responded to his comments, but it is the first time that a member of the TFG has publicly condemned AMISOM peacekeepers and the TFG leadership for benefiting financially from the Mogadishu conflict.

Mogadishu has been mired by an insurgency since early 2007 when Al Qaeda-affiliated Al Shabaab declared a war to topple the Western-backed TFG and its AMISOM allies.

Upwards of 21,000 have been killed since and hundreds of thousands displaced by the daily violence in Mogadishu.

GAROWE ONLINE