Amisom seizes arms factory and ammunition left by Al-Shabaab

A joint operation conducted on Tuesay by the peacekeepers of the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) and the Somali police force seized a large store containing ammunition left by Al-Shabaab in Mogadishu.

The ammunition was found at Bakara market, the largest trading centre in Mogadishu, which had served as a base for Al-Shabaab militants before the militants announced to have vacated their positions in the city on 6th of August.

According to Lieutenant Colonel Paddy Ankunda, the spokesman of the African force, the radical loyalists of Al-Shabaab had stores with large quantities of ammunition.

He added that Amisom peacekeepers will do all they can to ensure security. He said: “We will continue making the city safer for the people of Somalia. “Al-Shabaab had hidden large quantities of arms and explosives in the city.”

He added that some are buried in the vacated positions.

Amisom stated that it uncovered 137 rockets of 155 mm each and had loaded them in trucks before removing the ammunition from the market.

The peacekeepers were assisted by contracted Western experts in explosives, urban warfare and how to conduct DNA tests.

On Monday, the team also discovered a workshop that was assumed to have been used by Al-Shabaab to fabricate home-made bombs and other explosives.

Lt. Col Ankunda added: “The workshop was the largest facility found so far that was used to produce deadly artifacts.”

Shells for mortars, Rocket Propelled Grenades (GRBG) and other guns and rockets were found.

Cutting machines and other devises indicated that the place was a small factory.

On 10th of August, the New York Times published a report that Bancroft Global Development, an American private security company was engaged in training Amisom troops in Somalia.

The Western experts have dug out explosives that were haphazardly abandoned in some places, according to residents in areas abandoned by Al-Shabaab fighters in Mogadishu.

Meanwhile, the UN’s World Food Programme said today that the “vast majority” of its aid relief to famine-stricken Mogadishu was reaching those in need, in response to claims that some is being stolen, adds AFP.

“The WFP is confident that the vast majority of humanitarian food is reaching starving people in Mogadishu and saving lives every day,” WFP spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume told reporters.

Her comments came the day after Somalia’s transitional government said it was investigating reports of aid theft, while adding that there were no firm figures on the scale of any such problem.

“The WFP condemns in the strongest possible terms, any actions that would take even the smallest amount of food from starving and vulnerable Somalis, and we will rigorously investigate any allegations of theft of humanitarian food.

“But please remember it is a very dangerous and difficult place to work, it is probably the worst place in the world to work,” Berthiaume said, adding that reports of stolen food “would equal less than one percent of one month’s food distribution for Somalia.” Lauren Landis, the director of WFP Geneva, said the UN programme had some strict control measures in place to ensure aid reached its proper destination.

“The WFP has worked hard over a number of years to make sure that we have a very strong system of controls in place, because of the very difficult operating environment there,” she said.

According to its own figures, the WFP is currently providing food assistance to some 1.5 million people in central and northern Somalia. Berthiaume added that some 5,000 tonnes of food per month was being distributed in Mogadishu alone.

“We have said to the international community, to donors, and to everyone, ‘this is difficult and there are risks but we have no choice,” she said.