AU troops arrive in Mogadishu as exodus continues

The first African Union (AU) peacekeepers arrived on Tuesday in Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, even as more people continue to leave the city for security reasons, local sources said.

"The first four cargo planes carrying the first contingent of Ugandan troops have landed and we are expecting more," Salad Ali Jeele, the deputy Defence Minister of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia, told IRIN on Tuesday.

Jeele, who was at Mogadishu International Airport to meet the troops, said a ceremony would be held to welcome the Ugandans.

"The government and people of Somalia are happy that they have arrived," he said. "I hope the rest of the AU troops will follow soon."

He said the full deployment of AU troops "would be followed by the withdrawal of Ethiopian forces". Ethiopian troops helped the TFG to oust the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) from Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia in late December 2006.

"Today is the deployment of our mission in Somalia," Said Djinnit, AU commissioner for peace and security, told journalists at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa on Tuesday morning. "We are expected to deploy a first contingent of three battalions."

Djinnit said: "Our mission isn't there to fight the Somalis but of course if there are spoilers attacking the mission or people under the protection of the mission, definitely the response of our troops will be to defend themselves and defend the people they are expected to defend."

The AU troops will be deployed for a limited period, said Djinnit. "It could be five, six or seven months, and it would be followed by a larger United Nations operation."

Meanwhile, people continue to leave the city as the fragile security situation deteriorates, with targeted assassinations taking place almost daily.

On Monday, a senior police officer, Muhammad Aden Bo'orey, and a friend, Muhammad Haji Ali, were killed in broad daylight by unknown gunmen, according to Hassan Ade, a local journalist. "Last night [Monday], a group of men attacked the home of a prominent businessman, Haji Muhammad Hareed, and killed him.

"This [the assassinations] is becoming a regular thing and has created a great deal of fear among the population," said Ade.

There is also an increase in the people moving out of the city, said a civil society source. "There are no exact figures but our rough estimate is that since January, between 3,000 and 5,000 families [18,000 to 30,000 people] have left Mogadishu," he said.

He said many were escaping from the daily mortar and artillery exchanges between Ethiopian-backed government forces and unknown gunmen. "We are getting reports of people who have never left Mogadishu in the last 16 years who are leaving."

He attributed this to the uncertainty created by rumours that the government was bringing in more and more troops and that they would forcibly disarm everyone. "The feeling is that the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better and people want to get out of the way."

He said people who fled the city have "gone as far as Hargeisa [in Somaliland]. It is as if they are saying anywhere but Mogadishu."

ah/mw