Africa: What Al-Shabaab Understands About Somali Authority

In south-central Somalia, a trader knows what to expect at an al-Shabaab checkpoint. The rate is fixed, set out in a published schedule. The receipt allows passage through the next checkpoint without paying again. If the assessment seems unfair, there is a court the trader can appeal to. This is how a Mogadishu-based NGO director described the system to The New Humanitarian last September. At a federal government roadblock, by contrast, the soldier demands a bribe that he pockets himself, which means the same trader will be taxed again at the next stop, and the next, by men in the same uniform pursuing the same private arrangement.