Violence In Mogadishu

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Mogadishu, the capital city of Somalia, has had no central government in for the past twenty years (Arecchi, 1984, p. 221). Due to this, the largest city in Somalia has been fought over by different groups; the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), Islamic groups and the al-Shabaab (Lindley, 2010, p. 1). However, since the 1990’s after the overthrow of the former president Siad Barre, warlords and rebels took charge of most of the sixteen districts in Mogadishu, making it unhospitable for any civilian to live in (Biles, 1992). The selection of literature that has been chosen was based on the idea to better understand the violence that has happened in Mogadishu since the civil war in the 1990’s, and how this has changed in present times. According …show more content…
By being infamously ungoverned, this city has been fought over by different groups in order to dominate the land and gain power (Bridle, 2014, p. 32). After the overthrow of Siad Barre in 1991, rebel forces had begun to take control of Mogadishu (Biles, 1992), however many other groups competed for their control. Clans, warlords, the TFG and Islamic groups have been doing so since the start of the 1991 civil war, and to this day, twenty years later, many are still trying to compete with one another (Webersik, 2006, p. 1463). The main reason as to why Mogadishu was targeted was due to their location and what their economy is based on. Trade is very important in this large city. Mogadishu is the centre for commerce and trade in Somalia because of its coastal location (Webersik, 2006, p. 1463). Due to this, many fights occurred because of power opportunities, and this therefore had destroyed the whole city. For example, many civilians had died because of the lack of food available. Food supplies were often given by international communities, however, rebel armies often looted these supplies. Also, the land had been destroyed, thus Mogadishu’s agriculture was non-existent (African News Service,