Somali Islamists celebrate victory over warlords

There are also tales of al-Qa'ida moving in the shadows inside Somalia's capital, a city now in ruins, and a potent symbol of a failure of American foreign policy.

The blasted buildings and shattered streets, the burnt and looted factories, the lack of any kind of infrastructure, the ever-present men with guns, are the devastating legacy of a failed American intervention more than a decade ago. Now Somalia, a country the West subsequently chose to forget is the sudden recipient of frantic attention following the resounding victory of Islamist forces over US-backed warlords after months of fighting.

President George Bush has declared he will not tolerate Somalia becoming a Taliban-style Afghanistan. Neighbouring states are pouring in money and arms. The United Nations and aid agencies are setting up emergency programmes. Somalia is now the subject of a New York summit.

Yet in Mogadishu, the focus of so much fevered international analysis and speculation from the outside, there is a marked absence of foreign diplomats, or aid workers, or statesmen to gauge what is really happening.

Here among the streets, shattered and blasted by years of lawlessness, there is a momentary respite from the fighting, especially after the recent bout of ferocious violence. Shops are opening and families venturing out of their homes.

But no one believes that peace is about to break out. "We have learnt not to believe that good things will happen to us. I have seen too many people killed for that," said 28-year-old Hassina Ali, walking heavily laden with groceries back to her home, stumbling in the hijab, which has recently become the standard dress for women in Mogadishu and which she was still getting used to.

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http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article878358.ece