In the wake of the May 1 U.S. assassination of Adan Hashi Ayrow, leader of the Somali Al-Shabab insurgent group, extremists in Mogadishu have explicitly target “foreigners” — meaning white people. That was the cue for my friend Alex Strick van Linschoten, who had been shuttling between Nairobi and Mogadishu, to bail:

“Have decided to cancel my second trip to Somalia as the situation there has become too difficult to work … and I didn’t really fancy shelling out several thousand U.S. dollars to sit in a hotel in Mogadishu for a week.”

But he managed to squeeze in a very balanced story in The Times:

“Al-Shabab, now an autonomous rebel group which has added an explosive element to the combustible mix of Mogadishu’s militias, enforces strict sharia (Islamic law) and uses tactics imported from the global jihadi movement. As in Afghanistan, those who work or trade with the government risk being branded as spies or collaborators and beheaded as a warning to others.

“Members of Al-Shabab deliver ‘night letters’ to businessmen and others they wish to intimidate. One such letter listed “traitors assisting the occupiers who attacked the country” and warned of action if they did not make amends in 48 hours.

“The group has overrun at least eight towns this year and taken control of large swathes of Mogadishu. It is behind a spate of roadside bombings directed at convoys of Ethiopian troops.

“Journalists are routinely harassed. Editors and broadcasters received a letter from Al-Shabab last week instructing them to stop referring to the government and to say ‘puppets’ instead. They were told to call dead insurgents ‘martyrs.’

“The government’s writ does not run far and the Ethiopian forces propping it up are widely loathed. They come under attack as soon as they leave their heavily fortified bases. Meanwhile, some militias regarded as pro-government have received no wages for months and are switching their loyalties to whoever pays them.

“Mogadishu is at the epicentre of the anarchy. The threats posed by rival militias mean that to travel in the city is to be in constant fear of ambush or bombing.”

(Photo: me)