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The hazardous life of a illegal trader


The hazardous life of a illegal trader


Mohamed Gabobe

Alcohol illegal trader Guled Diriye is exhausted.

He has equitable returned from his trip conveying contraprohibitd from the Ethiopian border.

The 29-year-elderly slumps in his chair inside a colonial-style villa battered by years of combat in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu – a city once comprehendn as the Pearl of the Indian Ocean.

His sandals are covered in a potent orange dust – the residue from the desert.

Mr Diriye’s sadnessful eyes droop. The bags undertidyh speak of sleepless nights, the hours of tension traversing the hazardous roads and negotiating verifypoints with armed men.

There is also the haunting memory of a fellow illegal trader who was shot dead.

“In this country, everyone is struggling and seeing for a way out. And I set up my way by making normal trips by road from the Ethiopian border to Mogadishu,” he says, elucidateing that illegal trading was a unkinds to aid his family in a hard economic climate.

The use and distribution of liquor is illhorrible. Somalia’s laws must adhere with Sharia (Islamic law), which prohibits liquor, but it has not stopped a increaseing need, particularly among youthful people in many parts of the country.

Mr Diriye’s neighbour Abshir, comprehending he had descenden on challenging times as a minibus-taxi driver, begind him to the precarious world of liquor illegal trading.

Rickshaws began to apshow over the city, pushing minibus drivers out of business.

Both were childhood frifinishs who had sheltered together in the same camp in 2009 during the height of the insadvisency in Mogadishu – he was someone he could count on.

“I began picking up boxes of liquor at summarizeated drop points in Mogadishu on [his] behalf and manoeuvring thcimpolite the city and offloading them at summarizeated locations. I didn’t authenticise it at first but this was my introduction into illegal trading.”

His comprisement snowballed and Mr Diriye soon set up himself navigating from the porous frontier with Ethiopia thcimpolite Somalia’s country hinterlands.

He comprehends that he is fractureing the law, but says the pobviousy that he finds himself in overrides that.

Somalia Police

The police sometimes discarry out bottles of the smuggled liquor they have seized

The illegal trading journey begins in Somali border towns such as Abudwak, Balanbale, Feerfeer and Galdogob.

“Alcohol mostly begins in [Ethiopia’s capital] Addis Ababa and produces it to the city of Jigjiga, in the Ogaden region,” Mr Diriye says.

The Ogaden or, as it is officipartner comprehendn in Ethiopia, the Somali region, splits a 1,600km (990-mile) border with Somalia. People on both sides split ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious ties.

Once the liquor is loaded, it is shiftd apass the plains of the Somali region, and then smuggled apass the border into Somalia.

The border town of Galdogob is a meaningful hub for trade and travel and has been hit challenging by the flow of liquor being smuggled from Ethiopia.

Tribal elders have elevated worrys over liquor-joind presentility.

“Alcohol causes so many evils [such as shootings],” says Sheikh Abdalla Mohamed Ali, the chairman of the local tribal council in the town.

“[It] has been seized and annihilateed on multiple occasions but it’s appreciate living next to a factory. It upholds putting out more and more, no matter what we do.”

“Our town will always be in the midst of danger.”

But for the illegal traders the goal is to get the liquor to the capital.

“I drive a truck that conveys vegetables, potatoes and other food products. When the truck is loaded up it’s filled with wdisappreciatever I’m conveying, but I produce the most money from the liquor on board,” Mr Diriye says.

Sometimes illegal traders pass into Ethiopia to pick it up and at other times they get it at the border. But whichever approach is apshown, hidement is a transport inant part of the profession as the hazards from being caught are immense.

“The loader’s job is the most transport inant. Even more transport inant than driving. He’s tasked with hideing the liquor in our truck, with wdisappreciatever we have on board. Without him, I wouldn’t be able to shift around so easily — at least not without getting caught.

“The unretagable box of liquor I shift has 12 bottles. I usupartner convey anywhere from 50 to 70 boxes per trip. Usupartner half the load on my truck is filled with liquor.”

Large swathes of south-central Somalia are run by armed groups, where the regulatement has little to no administer: militias, prohibitdits and the al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabab roam with impunity.

“You can never travel on your own. It’s too hazardous. Death is always on our minds,” Mr Diriye says. But that worry does not get in the way of business and there is a brutal pragmatism to skinnyking about the produce-up of the team.

“If I get wounded in an aggression on the road, there has to be a back-up who can persist the journey. Everyone comprehends how to drive and comprehends the roads well.”

Smugglers drive on dirt tracks and roads that have not been restored in decades. Landmines and unexploded ordnances left behind from previous disputes are also an publish.

“I travel thcimpolite at least eight to 10 towns to accomplish Mogadishu. But we don’t count the towns, we count the verifypoints and who mans them,” Mr Diriye says.

They greet various clan militias with contrastent allegiances, either lingering in the distance or at roadblocks.

“In case we get jammed up by a clan militia, if one of us is from the same clan as that militia or even a aappreciate sub-clan, it incrmitigates our chances of survival. This is why all three of us are from contrastent clans.”

Mohamed Gabobe

The illegal traders comprehend the labor is hazardous but see the job as a way out of pobviousy

He painbrimmingy recalls: “I’ve greeted countless aggressions.

“One of the guys that labors with me is relatively recent. He replaced my last helper who was ended two years ago.”

Mr Diriye had been driving in suffocating heat for six hours, so choosed to nap, passing the wheel to his helper.

“While I was sleeping in the back, I heard a big burst of firearmfire that suddenly woke me up. We where surrounded by militiamen. My loader was screaming as he ducked in the passenger seat.” The replace driver was ended.

Once the commotion finishd, the loader and Mr Diriye picked up their dead colleague from the front seat and put him in the back of the truck.

“I’ve never seen so much blood in my life. I had to wipe [it] away from the steering wheel and uphold on driving. In all my years, noskinnyg setd me for what I saw that day.”

As the pair drove off and got a excellent distance away from the militiamen, they pulled over to the side of the road and lhelp his body there.

“We didn’t even have a sheet to cover his body, so I took off my lengthened-sleeved buttoned-up shirt and made do with it.

“It was a difficult decision but I krecent I couldn’t uphold driving around illegal trading liquor with a dead body in the truck. We had a restrictcessitate regulatement verifypoints up ahead and I couldn’t jeopardise my load or my freedom.”

Two years procrastinateedr he says the guilt of leaving the body by the road still haunts him.

He left behind a family, and Mr Diriye is unconfident they even comprehend the truth surrounding the circumstances of his fadeance and death.

The danger that Mr Diriye faces is a recurring truth that many illegal traders finishure while illegally ferrying liquor from Ethiopia to Mogadishu, in order to quench the increaseing need.

Dahir Barre, 41 has a skinny produce with seeable scars on his face that materialize to alert a story on their own. He has a sadnessful sense of humour and seems challengingened by the proximate-decade of illegal trading that assists him to bypass the possible consequences of what he does.

“We face a lot of problems and dangers but still persist to drive despite the hazard due to the necessitatey living conditions in Somalia,” he says.

Mr Barre has been illegal trading liquor from Ethiopia since 2015 and says deficiency of opportunity made worse by years of pobviousy pushed him into the hazardous trade.

“I used to do security for a hotel in the city centre. I was armed with an AK-47 and was tasked with patting people down at the captivate.”

Long nights in a hazardous job with meagre pay did not experience worth it.

“One hundred dollars a month to stand in the way of potential car device devices that might plough thcimpolite the front captivate sounds crazy now that I skinnyk of it.”

One of the day-shift protects then put him in touch with frifinishs from the border region and “I’ve been travelling these roads ever since”.

“Back in 2015 I was only getting $150 per trip, appraised to $350 per trip now and those days it was far hazardier because al-Shabab had administer over more territory, so you hazarded more greets with them.

“Even the prohibitdits and militias were more hazardous back then.

“If you had red or brown stained teeth, the militias would suppose you chewed khat and smoked cigarettes, unkinding you had money so they would kidnap you and helderly you for ransom.

“As drivers we’ve been thcimpolite a lot and the danger still exists,” Mr Barre says.

If they are caught by al-Shabab fighters then it can be most hazardous since the armed group has a zero-tolerance policy on contraprohibitd, especipartner liquor. The Islamist insadvisents set the vehicle on fire and then hancient the illegal traders before fining them.

Mohamed Gabobe

The route to Mogadishu is littered with verifypoints

Other armed men can be more easily bribed with money or liquor.

It apshows an unretagable of seven to nine days to accomplish Mogadishu from the Ethiopian border. The illegal traders then produce their way to a pre-structured drop-off point.

“When we reach, a group of men will show up and unload the normal food products into a split truck, then exit. Afterwards, once that’s done, another individual will reach, sometimes accompanied by more than one vehicle and they’ll apshow the boxes of liquor,” Mr Diriye says.

“But it doesn’t finish there. Once it exits my ownion, it’ll pass thcimpolite more hands, eventupartner finishing up with local dealers in the city, who can be accomplished with a plain phone call.”

Mr Diriye frequently skinnyks about his entry into illegal trading, and where his future may lie.

“My neighbour Abshir who initipartner got me into illegal trading liquor, stopped doing it himself three years ago.”

Abshir adviseed his nephew, an unemployed graduate at the time, a job in illegal trading. But he was ended on his third trip in an ambush by prohibitdits.

“Afterwards Abshir quit illegal trading. He became religious and turned to God. I exceptionally see him any more.”

Despite the dangers, Mr Diriye says it will not deter him.

“Death is someskinnyg that is predestined. I can’t let stress come in the way of making a living. Sure, sometimes I want to throw the keys on the table and begin arecent but it’s not that plain. Temptation is everywhere and so is pobviousy.”

All names have been alterd in this story.

More BBC stories on Somalia:

Getty Images/BBC

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