MOGADISHU, SOMALIA—There are two very different scenes in a city teeming with refugees where peace has been elusive for two decades.

In Daynile, a suburb about 15 kilometres northwest of Mogadishu and the latest front line in the battle against Al Shabab militants, soldiers with the African Union peacekeeping mission came under fire Friday as they pushed further into Shabab territory.

The AU forces had declared victory after fierce battles Thursday, saying the weakened Shabab was on the run, retreating farther from the city it once occupied.

But the Al Qaeda-linked group hours later denied the claim and posted photos of more than 60 bodies it claimed were Burundian soldiers, who along with Ugandans make up the 9,000-strong African Union mission.

Shabab spokesperson Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage is photographed near the bodies holding a necklace with a wooden cross — purported proof of what the radical Islamic groups says is a Christian conspiracy to occupy the country.

“It’s propaganda,” AU spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Paddy Ankunda said in an interview with the Toronto Star.

Ankunda said only 10 soldiers had been killed Thursday and two are missing.

Only one soldier’s face is visible and identified in the online photos, which means the Shabab disguised its own dead fighters in an effort to prove it’s not a weakened organization, Ankunda said.

There have long been reports of AU soldiers selling their uniforms to local markets and fear that Shabab fighters stockpiled the military gear before the group’s leaders abruptly left Mogadishu in August, for what they said were “tactical” reasons.

“I think it’s a very desperate act to dress up their own casualties for the camera,” said Ankunda.

“The Shabab is at their weakest point so far.”

There’s certainly hope among Mogadishu’s population that this is the case. This is where the other, somewhat surprising face of the city, exists — where business is booming and residents are getting used to living without the direct threat of the Shabab.

It’s true that after 20 years of war, Mogadishu is a city where residents barely flinch at the sound of gunfire. It is not uncommon for traffic disputes to be solved with drivers firing their guns in the air, as happens nearly daily on the city’s main thoroughfare.

And there is still fear, especially since a massive truck bomb earlier this month killed more than 70, many of them students applying for foreign scholarships.

But the conflict wasn’t visible at the city’s markets, or among the crowds of children swimming and leaping off rocks into the Indian Ocean on Friday.

A steady column of young men in the Hamar Weyne district hauled swordfish, hammerhead sharks and enormous marlins across their shoulders, leaving trails of blood from the fishing boats to the city’s fish market.

Vendor Isaaq Mohamud said the price of fish has dropped to $1 a kilogram, due to the recent bounty and the influx of people fleeing the southern famine and areas newly liberated from the Shabab.

“It’s the first time we’ve had people come to us from far away,” the 20-year-old said as he sliced the daily catch in the sweltering, dimly-lit market.

More are expected to come as Kenyan forces continue their southern attack that began unexpectedly Sunday. Hundreds of troops crossed into southern Somalia in response to three separate kidnappings in recent weeks of European hostages who were taken to Somalia after being snatched on Kenyan soil.

Dubbed “Operation Linda Nchi,” which in Swahili means “protect the nation,” it is widely considered a risky intervention because Somalia has a history of quickly toppling foreign forces.

There is still hope here. But optimism remains a rare commodity after years of a cycle of violence — caused by the Shabab, warlordism, disastrous foreign interventions and government corruption — has secured the country’s rating as the world’s No. 1 failed state.

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Toronto Star

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