Peacekeeper’s Bodies dragged in Mogadishu

Burundian Sodier dragged

The streets of Mogadishu have a long history of brutality. Here the body of a Burundian Peecekeeper, who was apparently captured alive by Al-Shabab fighters after an intense battle yesterday in the Northern districts of Mogadishu, is dragged by children in Baar Ubax, near Bakara market. I was told that he has been dragged for the entire day by children until the body was ripped apart and then finally disposed of in a ditch.

But horrific scenes like these are not as stomach-churning here in Mogadishu as they may seem to the rest of the world. Only a few days ago, dozens of government soldiers’ dead bodies were displayed across Mogadishu’s main junctions. It has become a sort of a daily spectacle, with bodies of slain soldiers often paraded around the city.

Warning! Graphic images…

Ugandan Soldier

Some months ago it was an ill-fated Ugandan soldier, pictured above, whose body got burnt when the tank that he was in was hit and eventually caught fire, was also displayed in Baar Ubax junction. An angry mob also dragged the mutilated bodies of Ethiopian soldiers, whose deep-rooted animosity and brutal tactics turned the entire country against them, in the streets of Mogadishu.

And of course, there is the famous Battle of Mogadishu when the desecrated corpse of  U.S. Staff Sgt. William David Cleveland was dragged through the streets of Mogadishu.

U.S. Staff Sgt. William David Cleveland

The objective behind the dragging the corpses of Amisom soldier through the streets of Mogadishu seems to indicate a flagrant provocation on the part of the Islamists, so that the public living in the force-contributing countries rise up in upheaval and demand from their governments to return their troops, as happened with the Clinton administration in 93. That has not happened so far, as little is known in Uganda about the daily events in Mogadishu that shape up the intensifying battle.