May 23, 2013
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Description
The Bakaara Market is an open market in Mogadishu, Somalia, and the largest in the nation. The name Bakaaraha derives from the Somali word for grain silo or storage, baqaar.
The market was created in late 1972 during the reign of Mohamed Siad Barre. Proprietors sold and still sell daily essentials, but it also largely expanded during the civil war and has become notoriously known as a market of small arms and all kinds of weapons, including rocket propelled grenades, mortars, 23mm and 30mm antiaircraft guns, and ammunition of all types. It was known as the largest market of weapons in the continent.
It is also famous for other illicit activities, such as forged Somali passports processed within minutes, including Ethiopian and Kenyan passports, and other forged documents, including but not limited to birth certificates and university diplomas. This illicit sub-market is famously known as Cabdalle Shideeye, named after one of its first proprietors.
The Bakaara Market is a focus of ongoing arms control efforts for the disarmament in Somalia, and has caught fire a few times in recent years.
(via Freebase)
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![African Union peacekeepers capture three sites in Mogadishu [Al-Alam, Iran]](/images/image_cache/base-311000/311148/thumbnail.width=304,height=171,grow=1,crop=center.jpg?sig=d5b2ea6999b6508ad63e2d9cca0b342f "Peacekeepers from the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) pictured during fighting between Somalia government soldiers and Islamist insurgents near the main Bakara market in the capital Mogadishu: REUTERS/Feisal Omar")