BAIDOA, SOMALIA — 00:26 EAT / 21:26 GMT
As massive gun battles—sparked by the sudden return of ousted leader Laftagareen—now rip through the very heart of Baidoa’s residential districts near the old ADC zone, federal troops are struggling to hold their defensive lines. Blood on streets.
Mortars are slamming into homes tonight: people are running for their lives. Heavy machine guns rattle across the sky; soldiers are taking up positions.
The administrative capital is falling into total chaos. (Local elders are trying to call for a ceasefire but nobody is listening.) The city is burning.
Witnesses near the main market are reporting that the “Darawish” loyalists of ousted South West State President Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed Laftagareen have successfully punched through the outer security ring. These guys are heavily armed and they are not backing down. They are using Technicals—those pick-up trucks with the big guns bolted to the back—to spray lead into any government position they see. The Somali National Army’s 60th Division is currently dug in around the presidential palace and the airport, but the middle of the city is a complete free-fire zone right now.
We are hearing from contacts inside the Baidoa Regional Hospital that the wards are already overflowing with wounded people who were caught in the crossfire. Doctors are working by flashlight because the power grid is completely fried. It’s a mess. The local economy is taking a massive hit as every single shop in the Isha and Berdaale neighborhoods has been shuttered or looted in the panic. Heavily armed police completely locked down the streets leading to the main government buildings earlier, but those cordons are breaking under the weight of the rebel assault.
The background to this nightmare is the long-simmering rage over the “one-person, one-vote” elections that the Mogadishu government tried to force through last month. Laftagareen, who was kicked out of office back in March, has been cooling his heels in Kenya and Galkayo, but he clearly hasn’t been idle. His return tonight caught the federal intelligence guys totally flat-footed. We are seeing reports that his fighters moved in under the cover of a sandstorm, taking over the strategic Berdaale junction which controls the main road back to Mogadishu. If they hold that junction, they can starve out the federal garrison.
There are also deep fears that this fight will draw in other actors. The Ethiopians have a big presence nearby, and if they think their border is at risk, they might cross over in force. That would turn a local power struggle into a regional explosion. Right now, the sky over Baidoa is lit up by tracers and the dull thud of RPGs hitting concrete walls. Families are huddling in their basements, or what passes for them, praying that a stray mortar doesn’t come through the roof.
It is important to remember that Baidoa has always been a powder keg. The tension between the federal government’s desire to centralize power and the regional leaders’ desire to keep their own fiefdoms has finally snapped. The “Madasha Mustaqbalka” opposition group in Mogadishu is already blaming President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud for the bloodshed, saying his “aggressive” federalization policy caused this. But in the streets of Baidoa, nobody cares about policy. They care about the lead flying through the air.
Communication is becoming very spotty. The local telecom masts might have been hit or maybe the government is jamming the signals to stop the rebels from coordinating. I am writing this from a handheld while hunkered down near a convoy that’s stalled on the outskirts. The smell of burnt rubber and cordite is everywhere. A senior military source, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he isn’t authorized to talk to the press, says the federal troops are waiting for air support from Mogadishu, but with the weather being this bad, who knows if that’s coming.
The casualties are mounting. We are seeing unconfirmed reports of at least twenty dead in the last two hours alone, mostly civilians who couldn’t get out of the way fast enough. The fighting is moving toward the “Big Tank” area, a strategic high point in the city. If Laftagareen’s men take that, it’s game over for the current administration in the city. The federal police commander for the region was reportedly wounded in the initial ambush at the ADC building, which has left the local security forces without a clear head.
Mogadishu is silent. There has been no official statement from the Villa Somalia yet. The silence is deafening and it’s making the troops on the ground nervous. They feel like they’ve been left to rot in this dusty corner of the country. This isn’t a small skirmish; this is a full-scale civil war breaking out in the middle of a Friday night. Every ten minutes, the ground shakes from another heavy blast. The humanitarian situation is going to be a disaster by sunrise if this doesn’t stop. People are already trying to flee toward the countryside, but the roads are blocked by checkpoints manned by nervous teenagers with AK-47s who are shooting at anything that moves too fast.
The international community needs to wake up to what’s happening here. The ATMIS mission is supposed to be drawing down, but there’s no way they can leave with this level of instability. This clash is a direct challenge to the legitimacy of the federal state. If Baidoa falls to the loyalists, it will be a signal to every other regional leader that they can just take back what they lost by force. The stakes couldn’t be higher. We are waiting for any word from the UN or the African Union, but so far, nothing but the sound of gunfire.
Reporting from the edge of the Isha district, I can see smoke rising from the direction of the main market. It looks like the “Bank of Somalia” branch might be on fire. This is the worst violence this city has seen in over a decade. The local people are the ones paying the price, as usual. We will keep filing as long as the battery and the signal hold out. The situation is extremely fluid and the front lines are moving block by block. Heavily armed police are trying to regroup for a counter-attack, but the momentum is clearly with the South West loyalists for now. Total lockdown is in effect, but the lockdown is being enforced by bullets, not by law. Night is far from over. More to follow.
