African peacekeepers serving in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu are unloading a cache of weapons for the second consecutive day at the city’s main port, Radio Garowe reports.

The 5,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force (AMISOM) guards the main port, the international airport and the Villa Somalia presidential compound in Mogadishu.

Commercial ships docked at Mogadishu’s port have been ordered to stop unloading goods, as military hardware was unloaded from a large ship that reportedly originated in neighboring Kenya.

Weapons and fighting vehicles are being unloaded from the ship, including tanks for AMISOM [peacekeepers],” said a Somali military source who declined to be named in print as he was unauthorized to speak to reporters.

Officials from Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) have not commented on the weapons being unloaded by the African peacekeepers, but it marks the third time in a month AMISOM peacekeepers have received a weapons shipment via the port, according to informed sources.

A Somali trader told Garowe Online that the peacekeepers prevented people from entering the port and ordered ship owners to stop unloading their goods from commercial ships docked at Mogadishu’s main port.

AMISOM consists of soldiers from Uganda and Burundi, who are in Mogadishu to protect the TFG from being overthrown by Islamist hardliners led by Al Shabaab, a faction the U.S. and Australian governments have blacklisted as an international terror organization with links to Al Qaeda.

At least 12 Somali civilians were killed in Tuesday shelling that hit parts of Mogadishu’s busy Bakara Market. Witnesses have blamed African peacekeepers for the deadly shelling, but AMISOM commanders have rejected the charges. READ: Somalia: 12 civilians killed in Mogadishu shelling

Somalia’s capital has been mired in armed conflict since the early 1990s. In early 2007, Islamist guerrillas began an insurgency to overthrow the UN-recognized interim government in Mogadishu, with upwards of 18,000 people killed in the conflict since.

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Source: Garowe online

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