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SOMALIA: LOOTING SPREE IN BAYDHABO June 21, 2005
Residents and businesses in Baydhabo city are very frightened by the chaos in the city these days. Armed thugs roam the streets and loot everything they can get hold of indiscriminately. The man who controls the city doesn’t have enough resources and manpower to stabilize the situation and his fighters are accused of spearheading the chaos.
Mr. Mohamed Ibrahim Habsade assumed control after a brief armed confrontation among local RRA faction in which he defeated his opponents who left the city in hurry.
Witnesses in the city said many private and public places have been looted and armed burglaries are on the increase these days.
The new Somali interim government was scheduled to relocate to Baydhabo but that plan died after government loyalists were defeated and fled the city.
Baydhabo changed hands many times since the civil war started in Somalia in 1991.