NO END IN SIGHT TO BANANA WAR

By Moyiga Nduru

Apr. 24, 1996

A banana war between two of Somalia's main warlords is underway over the control of the lucrative banana export trade to Europe.

The forces of Gen. Mohamed Farah Aideed, the self-proclaimed president of Somalia, are pitted against the militiamen of his former financier-turned-foe, Ali Hassan Osman "Atto", and the fighting has been fierce.

Aideed needs the revenues, estimated at around $ 800,000 a month, to pay his soldiers as he tries to establish his control in the Bay and Bakol regions and take on the Rahenweyne clan.

Atto, in a lose alliance with another self-proclaimed president, Ali Mahdi Mohammed based in northern Mogadishu, wants to deny him that control.

Renewed clashes beginning last month leaving scores of people dead, including Atto's son shot by a sniper, as business leaders and elders attempt to negotiate a truce.

"We are doing our best to stop the fighting. People phone me every day from Mogadishu that they are working very hard to stop the carnage," Hussein Ali Dualleh of the Nairobi-based Somali Affairs Monitoring Committee told IPS.

"What's happening in Mogadishu is not a political war. It's purely an economic war. A war sparked by an attempt to control the port of Merca and Somalia's lucrative banana trade. That's why the fighting is not being joined by other Somali factions," says the former Somali ambassador to Kenya.

Merca, a small and ancient port some 90 kms south of Mogadishu, is Aideed's economic lifeline. "The port was renovated by two tiny foreign firms -- an Italian company called Somali Fruit and an American company called Sombana -- when the main port of Mogadishu was closed by Ali Mahdi following a quarrel over the banana trade last year," Dualleh explained.

"The two companies renovated Merca and pay Aideed for every carton they export 20 cents. That comes roughly to about $ 800,000 a month during the peak season from April to August," he says.

Additional levies bring in an additional $ 200,000 to Aideed's coffers each month.

Atto and Ali Mahdi blocked Aideed from using Mogadishu port last October. Fighting again flared in March when Atto demanded that the warlord either share the revenues from Merca or see that port closed.

In the battle that followed, Aideed's forces were overrun. A full-scale war was averted after elders of the Habir Gedir clan, to which the two warlords belong, persuaded Atto's militia to withdraw.

As they pulled back to Mogadishu, Atto's militia felt "humiliated and bitter", according to a Somali elder here who wanted to remain anonymous, "and they immediately attacked Aideed's forces. That's the origin of the present conflict."

Before Somalia collapsed into the anarchy of warlord politics with the overthrow of former dictator Siad Barre in 1991, the country was earning some $ 20 million annually from banana exports. That represented around 15 per cent of the country's total export earnings.

The money now goes to whoever can control the fertile Lower Shabelle region and a port. Fearing that he may lose out on the banana trade, Ali Mahdi has built his own port of Al Eel Maan, 30 kms north of Mogadishu.

The current round of fighting comes at a time when the majority of Somalis struggle to survive. With the withdrawal of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in 1995 and the sharp drop in the number of foreign aid agencies willing to risk operating in Somalia, jobs are scarce.

A recent report by the U.N.'s Food and Agricultural Organization warned that poor harvests due to drought and insecurity in parts of the country have led to sharp rises in the cost of food and, with the low purchasing power of most Somalis, has also caused pockets of malnutrition.

Between 1991 and 1992, some 300,000 people died of starvation and famine-related diseases as a result of the civil strife, prompting the ill-fated $ 4 billion U.S. and U.N. intervention.

Aideed, whose armed opposition to the mission led to its demise, last June declared himself president of Somalia. He has appointed a government, announced a budget, tried to collect taxes and enforce his authority from his south Mogadishu headquarters. However, only Libya has recognized him.

He is resisted by the other warlords, not least Ali Mahdi and his Abgal clan, which retains control of the northern half of a divided Mogadishu. In other parts of the country, clan-based statelets have emerged and, since 1991, the north-western region has proclaimed itself independent as Somaliland.

Last week, several small Somali political parties formed a consultation group here to seek a peaceful solution to their country's agony after the failure of repeated attempts brokered by neighboring Ethiopia and the Organization of African Unity. But the meeting was not attended by Aideed, Ali Mahdi or Atto.

"I think the conference was just a political gimmick to show the world that they were still alive and kicking," says Dualleh. "A conference to bring peace in Somalia should not be held in a hotel in Nairobi. It should be held in Somalia and the deliberations should take at least three months, not four days."

However, the spokesman for the group, Mohamed Awale, justified the peace initiative. "The people of Somalia are suffering simply because there is no government in their country and their leaders cannot agree to produce one," he stressed.