By: MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
 African Union forces take a break at a base captured from al-Shabaab insurgents in Mogadishu on Monday. (Feisal Omar, Reuters) |
"Stop!" Mohamed yelled at the boy, who hadn't quite finished cleaning. Mohamed jumped in the driver's seat. "I'll be back."
Ambulance drivers risk their lives to try to save people hit by the mortar fire, artillery shells and random gunfire that have been ricocheting around this crumbling seaside city for almost 20 years. In 2009, two drivers were killed -- one when a mortar round landed on an ambulance and a second when another ambulance was hit by tank fire.
The city lurches between quiet periods, when shoppers fill markets, to heavy warfare where no place is entirely safe. Since Saturday, 23 people have been killed and almost 90 wounded, Mohamed's ambulance service said.
As the ambulance approached a government checkpoint, the lone soldier on guard pointed the barrel of his gun at the vehicle.
"Is this a real ambulance or the suicide bombers' one?" the alert and suspicious soldier asked Mohamed. For nearly 10 minutes, he prevented Mohamed from moving before deciding it was a real ambulance.
Twenty minutes later, Mohamed pulled up to a woman screaming outside a five-room bungalow made of cheap bricks.
Source: MailGuardian