Somalis adapt to endless conflict

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Guled Mohamed
Mogadishu taxi-driver Yusuf Ali starts work three hours later than usual after he has heard the latest security updates on the radio.
"I don't use a road twice," he says. I call my two wives often just to tell them I'm alive. It's that bad."
Every time she leaves for work, Nadifa Abdi says she reminds her children what to do with her financial affairs if she doesn't come back.
"Uncertainty and fear hang in the air," says Abdi, who sells the stimulant khat leaf. "I leave a will whenever I go to work because I'm not sure I will return home alive."
An upsurge of violence in the Somali capital -- where Islamist insurgents are attacking Somali government targets and their Ethiopian military allies -- has compelled war-sick Mogadishu residents to alter their daily habits.
Civilians, rather than combatants, have borne the brunt of unceasing explosions and deadly gunfights that are bearing an ever-growing grim resemblance to scenes in Baghdad.
An interim government formed in late 2004 is struggling to assert its authority in the Horn of African country that has become a byword for anarchy since the 1991 ouster of former strongman Mohamed Siad Barre by clan warlords.
Many of the impoverished residents would like to flee the senseless killings -- and 400,000 have since February, according to the United Nations -- but do not have the means to leave.
Terrified inhabitants say the endless roadside bombs and suicide attacks were unknown before the government took over the city after it ousted an Islamist movement at the end of 2006 with the help of Ethiopian troops.
"Roadside bombs and suicide attacks are a new phenomenon," says khat vendor Abdi. "Even tyre bursts force us to duck for cover as troops open fire randomly."
A curfew imposed on the city last week by the government has failed to stop the violence.
Around the city, nervous Somali and Ethiopian troops stand on high alert, triggers ready to fire.
Residents cross roads and watch cars anxiously, giving military bases a wide berth.
In north Mogadishu -- where full-scale battles took place in March and April -- deserted, bullet-poked houses stand with missing roofs destroyed by rockets and heavy artillery.
Shopkeepers say food prices have shot up since goods that used to arrive via Mogadishu port are now brought through the Gulf of Aden port of Bosasso, in northwest Somalia, as ships skirt insecurity in the capital and pirates off its coast.
Fuel prices have also doubled due to shortages.
"I have lost my enthusiasm for business in Mogadishu," Dini Shukri, a 38-year-old entrepreneur, told Reuters.
In another echo of Iraq, he said he feared working for the authorities in case that made him a target.
"I wanted to seek contracts from the government, but decided not to because anybody who works with the administration is killed. I avoid military bases since they are like a time-bomb."
With militant Islamist groups vowing to continue their hit-and-run attacks on the government and the Ethiopians whom they view as "occupiers", worse could be yet to come.
"Drivers are the most vulnerable since we go out on roads hidden with bombs," taxi-driver Ali added.
"A colleague is still in shock after realising he carried a would-be suicide bomber. Life is unbearable."
— Reuters