Freelance gunmen are making life in Somalia’s capital of Mogadishu more frightening than ever, forcing businesses, dignitaries and foreign residents to hire more armed men for protection against extortion and kidnappings. For years, the streets of Mogadishu have bristled with deadly hardware ranging from sidearms, through sub-machine guns to “technicals”: modified anti-aircraft artillery or heavy machine guns mounted in the wells of pick-up trucks. Foreign aid workers, visiting journalists and local dignitaries rarely move in the city without an escort of one or two technicals. There is no government to speak of in Somalia since the ouster of President Mohammed Siad Bare in 1991. Many consider the Transitional National Government (TNG), which controls pockets of the capital and little else, as just one of the many, mostly clan-based, armed groups vying for power and control across the country. Full Story
About OODA Analyst
OODA is comprised of a unique team of international experts capable of providing advanced intelligence and analysis, strategy and planning support, risk and threat management, training, decision support, crisis response, and security services to global corporations and governments.