III. Managing Neighbourhood Security

Insecurity is Mogadishu’s great leveller. On Saturday 26 November 2016, at least eleven people were killed and many more injured in a car bomb attack on a police checkpoint by a busy vegetable market in Waberi district. Noone claimed responsibility, but most people thought that Al-Shabaab was behind the attack, which took place when the president was visiting a nearby university. Two weeks later, on Sunday 11 December 2016, a bomber drove a minibus packed with explosives into a tax office at the entrance to Mogadishu’s Turkish-run seaport. The blast went off among stalls in a lay-by crowded with day-shift workers buying breakfast. On this occasion Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for killing 30 police officers, but most people agree that the majority of those killed and wounded were civilians and port employees. The blast could be heard across the city and pictures of the scene soon circulated on social media. The weeks between December’s attack and February’s presidential elections saw multiple assaults involving vehicle bombs, IEDs, grenades and targeted assassinations, which destroyed buildings and killed or injured government representatives and citizens. The elections were held in the safety of Aden Adde International Airport, but those without international protection were targeted by gunmen, including senior Somali security officers, government representatives such as tax collectors, and authority figures including elders, businessmen and NGO activists.