Gunmen plundered computers and bags of sugar from a Coca Cola plant in Mogadishu on Friday during a lull in fighting between allied Somali-Ethiopian troops and insurgents, a local manager said. The unidentified group, who were wearing uniforms, commandeered 12 trucks to drive away the booty seized in the overnight looting spree that took place after the plant was shelled, local Coca Cola manager Bashir Mohamed Araye said. “Our offices were broken into and all computers looted. We had supplies of sugar that were supposed to last the whole year -they were also looted,” added the manager of the Somali-owned franchise in a smart and modern compound in Mogadishu.
The odd stray bullet was heard in the Somali capital, a day after Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi declared significant gains in the governmentÂ’s nine-day offensive to end resistance by a group of Islamist fighters, foreign jihadists and some clansmen.
But many Somalis, undergoing a refugee exodus worse than Iraq in recent months, were sceptical the war was winding down. There was no respite for medical workers struggling with little or no supplies to patch up the wounded, many ferried to overflowing hospitals in wheelbarrows and donkey carts. |