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               S O M A L I A  N E W S  U P D A T E

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No 33                 October 27, 1992.               ISSN 1103-1999

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Somalia News Update is published irregularly via electronic mail.
Questions can be directed to antbh@strix.udac.uu.se or to fax number
+46-18-151160. All material is free too quote as long as the source 
is stated.
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                   IN THIS ISSUE: FIGHTING IN KISMAYO
                                  CHAOS IN KISMAYO
                                  TWO TYPES OF NEEDS






                        FIGHTING IN BOSAASO
					   
   (SNU, Uppsala, Oct 26) Renewed fighting was reported in the 
Northeastern town Bosaaso on Saturday. A Kenyan-based pilot on a 
routine mission for the UN, reported that he had intercepted an 
emergency call over the short-vawe from the UNOSOM headquarters in 
the town.
   It is not known what forces that are involved in the current 
fighting.  
   Earlier this year Bosaaso was the scene for heavy fighting between 
forces belonging to the Majerteyn-based movement SSDF and groups 
described as "fundamentalists". The latter were shelling the port in 
an attempt to gain control over it and are also reported to have held 
the Iman of the Majertayn clans, Mohamed Abshir, hostage for several 
days. However, after that episode the Northeast of Somalia has been 
relatively stable and food-poduction is said to have resumed in 
several areas. 



                        CHAOS IN KISMAYO

   (SNU, Uppsala, Oct 26) Following heavy fighting in the Southern 
city of Kismayo, all further relief shipments to the port have been 
cancelled. BBC (Focus on Africa) reported on Sunday that one group in 
the city had opened fire with anti-air-craft guns on two ICRC-
chartered flights carrying relief food.
   Although the instability in Kismayo has now escalated to an extent 
that has forced the UN to evacuate their staff there, the SNA (the 
alliance between SPM and USC) maintains that "tranquility reigns in 
the area". On these grounds, SPM has rejected the UN-plan to place 
another 500 troops in Kismayo.
   Several observers have pointed to the possibility that Kismayo in 
the coming weeks may be invaded by the SNF forces under general 
Morgan's command. His current attack on Baardheere, farther up along 
the Jubba river, may only have been a first strike in a series of 
moves that ultimately aims at secruing control over the entire area 
west of Jubba river. Earlier this year Morgan was ousted from Kismayo 
by the SPM.
    The last week's fighiting in Kismayo is reported to primarily 
have involved the Galja'eel clan and the groups of the Ogadeen clan 
belonging to the SPM movement.

 
                        TWO TYPES OF NEED IN SOMALIA

   (SNU, Uppsala, Oct 27) The urban population in Somalia have few 
sources of subsistence other than those related to the massive import 
of relief food. In a city like Mogadishu the middle class have to 
seek ways of subsuding that makes them too benefit from the only 
major resource that is aroudn: food aid. One can rent one's house as 
an office or residence to an international agency, one may rent or 
repair vehicles to the aid organisations, one may work as watchmen 
for the aid organisations. There are numerous ways in which urban 
people can offer their - often highly skilled - services to the aid 
agencies. Those who do not get hired have to seek other ways: 
looting, building vehicles for looters, extortion etc. 
   There is, in brief, a great but overlooked need for income-
generating activities among these groups. In the 1980's when foreign 
aid accounted for 57 % of the Somali GNP, most urban people in one 
way or the other subsided off the development funds. Today, with food 
aid being the main asset streaming in to the country people try to 
make a living out of that.
   The "hundred day plan" recently passed as the plan of operations 
for the various UN and other agencies operating in Somalia 
acknowledges these needs of the urban population as different than 
the relief-aid needs of the people in the interior. It is not 
unlikely that with increasing attention being paid to the needs of 
the the parts of the population who are not immediately threatened by 
starvation, the security situation for food relief will improve.

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Posted by Bernhard Helander in Uppsala, Sweden.