Somalia's bomb disposal experts face down fear to save lives

By Abdi Sheikh

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Wearing a bulky protective suit and helmet, Mohamed Ahmed inches towards the truck where explosives wired to a mobile phone have been planted in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu.

Fortunately for Ahmed, a police officer, this is a training exercise and the device is a dummy.

Bombings using this technique, or suicide attacks with vehicles, are a common occurrence in Somalia, where insurgents linked to al Qaeda have been fighting the government since 2007.

In one of the most recent attacks, fighters from the al Shabaab militant group used a car bomb to blow up a restaurant in the capital where soccer fans were watching the final of the Euro 2024 tournament on television, killing five people.

"We fear and feel like we are risking our lives," said Ahmed, a member of the police's Explosive Ordnance Unit. "But we work carefully together and consider that we're saving the lives of our citizens."

After three decades of civil war in Somalia, Ahmed's unit also has to deal with the estimated one million mines and other unexploded ordnance that have killed or injured more than 1,700 people across the country, according to the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS).

The bomb squad's dog trainer Hussain Ahmed said he sometimes faces stigma over his work because dogs are considered unclean in Islam.

"If they say we shall not shake hands or greet you, we are indifferent, without a grudge," he said.

"Yes, there is impurity from dogs, but dogs prevent explosions that would kill thousands of Somalis, so they have their benefits."

(Reporting by Abdi Sheikh; Writing by Hereward Holland; Editing by Helen Popper)