MOGADISHU, Somalia Oct 11 (Garowe Online) - The main port in the Somali capital Mogadishu was closed for the fifth consecutive day on Sunday, as a dispute deepens between the port authority and businesspeople, Radio Garowe reports.

A Mogadishu business source confidentially told Garowe Online that the port authority issued an order demanding that all unloaded goods be stored at warehouses within port grounds.

“This is a plan to rob businesses and we do not believe the port to be a safe place,” said the business source, adding that business leaders planned to speak with the leaders of the Somali interim government in Mogadishu, including President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed.

Ordinarily, goods unloaded from ships docked at Mogadishu’s main port are stored at warehouses inside the capital’s sprawling Bakara Market, with many business leaders saying that the market is a safer place than port grounds.

Several ships docked at the port have been ordered not to unload goods until further notice, port workers said.

Somali government officials say that the plan is intended to stop insurgents from controlling business profits and financing the insurgency, since Bakara Market has been dominated by Islamist rebels since 2007.

But the director of Banadir Hospital, Dr. Abdirisak Hassan Ali, accused Mogadishu’s port authority of “giving away” medical supplies donated to the hospital.

“The medical supplies including medicines were donated to us by a supporting partner, but we have heard that the supplies were given away to businesspeople to be sold,” said the director of Mogadishu’s main mother and child hospital.

Port authority officials were not immediately available for comment to respond to these accusations, but sources say Mogadishu’s port will remain closed until the dispute is resolved.

The port is one of the major revenue sources for the cash-strapped Somali interim government, which is fighting against Islamist insurgents who have vowed to overthrow the UN-recognized interim government.

Source: Garowe Online