Why the Benadir market fire was ignored
By Zakariye Osman
A ferocious fire broke out at Mogadishu’s Benadir market on the evening of May the 19th. Businesses believe that the fire, which is still smouldering four days later, was started by frayed electrical wires. Emergency services struggled to put out the fire and most of the goods both sold and stored there where engulfed in fire within minutes. No official estimate as of yet, but tens of millions of dollars is believed to have been lost in the fire.
Shanloow Abdullahi Farah, a mother who lost two businesses in the fire, a commercial dough kneading machine and a storage business, told Goobjoog News that most of the goods were not being able to be saved because of the ferociousness of the fire and the nature of the goods themselves. Most of the goods where machines that needed manpower which was not available in short notice, and the rest were clothes that were immediately incinerated.
Ms. Farah supported five families and countless other relatives with her businesses but says, she feels most for her over ten employees and their families. “Some of my employees have two to three families of their own and on top of that support other members of their relatives” Ms. Farah explained. When asked about how it feels to lose so much in a such a short period of time, Ms. Farah selflessly deflected the question and only expressed how she is most worried about the goods that she stored for others in her warehouse. “Mine is minuscule compared to the amount of goods owned by my customers that we lost in my storage” she said.
The business owners that spoke to Goobjoog News were unanimous in their disgust with the authorities. “No single official came to see the destruction; No Mayor and no President gave us a visit” said Ms. Farah. “In fact, the bulldozers that they sent to stop the fire started destroying the goods that we were attempting to save” she added. Ms. Farah emphasised that Abdifitah Isse, the Hodan District commissioner, was the only official that helped and stopped the bulldozers from destroying their goods. “Only Mr. Isse came and showed us sympathy” she recalled.
Ms Farah along with countless other victims of the fire expressed how the negligence showed by the authorities sent the wrong signal. “Since no one came to see us, it indicated to others that the destruction was minimal” she said.
When asked why they think they are being ignored most of them mentioned the fact that the presidential election was a mere four days earlier and that their suffering fell through the cracks of the transitional period.
Perhaps, most of the blame lies with the power companies whose frayed electrical wires were believed to have started the fire. “No Beco, Mogadishu Power or Blue Sky came to assess the damage,” Ms Farah said. “These companies must be investigated and held to account” she demanded.
Omar Roble, an optician in the area shares this sentiment and adds that the power companies are not up to standard as their wires that are carrying tremendous electrical currents are crossing all over town without the proper protection. “These fires happen perpetually because the power companies do not plan for long term, and they don’t have the infrastructure needed to mitigate future incidents” he added.
As of now, no official report is released about the fire and there are no plans to address the damage done by the fire.