Plans to reopen Mogadishu port

Businessmen based in the capital, Mogadishu, say they are planning to reopen its port and airport after more than 10 years.

Businessman Ahmed Du'ale Haf, who is also a member of the Transitional National Assembly, said the city's top businessmen were involved in the process. The plans had nothing to do with politics, but were "purely commercial", he told IRIN on Wednesday.

"We want to open the port and airport because the public needs them and the business community needs them," he added. He told IRIN that at least 21 of the biggest businesses in Mogadishu, belonging to all the clans, were engaged in the effort. "We will not fail," he stressed.

The two facilities have effectively remained closed ever since the outbreak of the civil war in 1990, due to differences between the city's various faction leaders. The Transitional National Government (TNG), set up in Arta, Djibouti, in 2000, has so far been unable to reopen them.

However, the Mogadishu-based HornAfrik radio on Monday quoted a Mogadishu faction leader, Usman Hasan Ali Ato, as warning that no single group could reopen the port, and that doing so would require agreement from all sides. He claimed the businessmen were being supported by the "Arta faction [TNG]".

Sayyid Ali Maalin Abdulle, another businessman involved in the reopening plan, told IRIN that the group would talk to all the factions in Mogadishu to convince them of the need to reopen the port.

"We have already talked to some of them, and they have expressed support," he said. "We will engage in dialogue with all those opposed to the idea, and try to bring them on board. However, he warned, "we want to reopen the port peacefully, but if anyone attacks our ships, we will not stand idly by".

A regional analyst familiar with Mogadishu told IRIN that if any group was capable of reopening the port and airport, it was the business community. "If they are serious and united, then they can definitely reopen them," he said. He pointed out, however, that some of the same businessmen were already operating airstrips and beach ports "which have proved lucrative for them". "Will they be willing to shut these places down in favour of the port and airport?" he asked.

Haf stressed they would. "Some of us are running ports and airports, but we are all willing to shut them down to have the main Mogadishu port and airport reopened. The business community has never been more united than at this time, and nothing is going to deter us from achieving this goal."

Until the civil war broke out, Mogadishu port served as a major entry and exit point for as much as 95 percent of Somalia's import-export trade. But then it became a battlefield for the city's factions, while the beach ports of El-Ma'an in north Mogadishu and Marka, 100 km to the south, began handling the bulk of trade for Mogadishu and southern Somalia.

Abdulle said he expected the port and airport to become operational within "a very short period of time".