A list of the armaments available in Somalia reads like an inventory of an arms dealer s warehouse. The residents of the city refer to the shells they fire as to whom it may concern because they are so inaccurate. Perhaps more significant than the heavy weaponry is the ubiquitous AK-47. You can see this hardy and efficient killing machine in the hands of children as young as seven or eight years old, yet its recoil is so fierce that unless you have both strength and training it will throw you off balance and spray bullets wildly. The sheer quantity of arms available to the contending factions ensures years of conflict.
Every market has stalls selling small arms and ammunition.
A child in hospital who had been given food by a visiting reporter showed her thanks by offering a present of three AK-47 cartridges. For 30 years the superpowers poured weaponry into the Horn. In the 1960s and early 1970s the US provided their ally Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia with more US military aid than the rest of the Africa combined. Meanwhile, successive Somali governments received military assistance from the Soviet Union, in return for allowing use of the strategically placed naval base at Berbera, close to the Red Sea choke point. General Aidid learned his artillery doctrine in Moscow - obliterate whole squares on the map rather than aim at specific targets.