Not really. Gwelle and his men were deft extortionists. Relief agencies, known locally as NGOs (nongovernmental organizations), had paid them $20,000 a week to keep the airport open. After the handover, Gwelle said he wanted to work with the allies, but he added: “I still expect the NGOs to keep paying us, naturally.” In a villa across from the airport gates, he had hidden another, larger arsenal, including heavy machine guns and mortars. He didn’t seem at all intimidated by the fact that the nearest Marine sentries were only 100 yards away.
In the second week of Operation Restore Hope, U.S. troops and their allies moved out of Mogadishu, occupied the battered city of Baidoa and finally began to deliver food to some of the people who so desperately needed it. The logistical buildup continued; thousands more soldiers and Marines poured into the country, and as they settled down, rumors spread that George Bush would pay them a holiday visit. What the troops didn’t do, to any significant extent, was disarm a country where guns are swamp mosquitoes, a deadly plague.
Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the United Nations secretary-general, still insisted that the allies had to confiscate the guns. But he wasn’t getting very far with the Americans. “I think the belief that we can disarm Somalia is totally naive,” said Marine Lt. Gen. Robert Johnston, the commander of the operation. Instead, the Marines planned to establish just enough security to protect food shipments, moving methodically from city to city-too methodically, said some of their bureaucratic rivals in the Pentagon (box, page 39). The allies created small zones of security, but elsewhere-even in parts of Mogadishu itself-the gunmen still conducted a reign of terror. “We’ve been invaded, and [we agree] to be invaded, but we don’t get the benefits of an invasion,” complained Hussein Mursal, a Somali doctor who works for Save the Children. “I don’t see much impact on the day-to-day living of ordinary Somalis.”
The first casualty of the Baidoa operation was an old man who worked as a guard at the CARE compound. He was run over by a CNN driver, a hellbent Somali who left his seriously injured victim lying in the street. The troops established security for themselves, but that did not immediately end the violence. Several bystanders were wounded in a shoot-out at the marketplace where khat, the popular stimulant, is brought in by convoy from Mogadishu. When a clinic run by French doctors fired one of its workers, three gunmen burst in, took aim at the staff and demanded that he be rehired. Other gunmen shot up an intensive-feeding station.
The next day, troops accompanied an eight-truck food convoy into an area often hit by looters in armed vehicles known as “technicals.” Warned Colonel Hallmer: “Any technical seen near the convoy will have a very intense emotional experience.” The trucks, greatly outnumbered by press vehicles, visited four villages northwest of Baidoa. At each stop, they dropped off supplies and drove away as villagers gathered up the food. “We have nothing to guard it with,” complained Timiro Hassan, 30, a mother of four in a village called Bushley. “The looters are going to come back for sure.” That night Baidoa was calm, but thieves were busy just outside town. One gang ambushed a bus, killing a passenger and wounding three others.
The situation wasn’t much better in Mogadishu, where armed robbery and factional fighting paralyzed districts not controlled by foreign forces. “We want to ask the American troops to take all of the city,” said Sheik Aden Dere, a religious leader. “The thieves who were there [in the U.S.-controlled sector] ran here and are now living among us.” The Americans expanded their security zone, but Col. Fred Peck, a spokesman for the command, warned: “We don’t have plans at the moment to go out and take all of Mogadishu.” As a result, even honest people continued to employ squads of gunmen as bodyguards. “We don’t go out without guns,” said a Western relief worker. “These zones of security create zones of insecurity. But short of a full occupation force, what can you do to create security in an entire country?”
Even the security zones weren’t safe for some people. Near a French checkpoint, a mob attacked a Somali woman who apparently had accepted chocolate from a U.S. soldier and later was seen in the company of French troops. Believing she had slept with foreigners, the fiercely proud Somalis beat her with sticks and tore her clothes off. The French, unwilling to open fire on the crowd, did nothing to help the woman. Finally other Somalis bundled her away to safety before the mob could kill her.
Although the troops were finally delivering food, not all of it got to the right places. In Bushley, the chief elder, Isac Aliou, gave most of the food to his own subclan, the local property owners. Two other subclans got small portions, barely one meal for each person. About one third of the village’s population got nothing. One of them, Habiba Mualim, sat tending her weak and emaciated mother. “I have nothing to give her,” she said. An American offered to take the old woman to a feeding center in Baidoa. “No,” said Habiba Mualim, stroking her mother’s feet gently. “I am only waiting for her to die.” When the mother fell asleep, children pulled rags over her face. For extra warmth, they covered her with a plastic sack labeled USA WHEAT.
Nearly 7,000 Americans by late in the week, along with 429 Canadians, 330 French and 130 Belgians. An additional 1,233 in smaller contingents from Italy, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Botswana, Kuwait, Turkey and Jordan.
Snipers fired at U.S. Marines in Baidoa; no American casualties.
The allies planned to open a second front by occupying the port of Kismayu, which gunmen had closed for weeks. Scouting the harbor, navy frogmen heard gunfire, though it wasn’t clear whether the shots were aimed at them.
Baidoa: Troops secure area and deliver food
Baledogle: U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Div. begins to fly in
Mogadishu: Allies secure more of the city; troops continue to arrive
