Somali port shuts amid dispute

Business at the port has been flourishing in the last two years

A dispute between the Somali government and the business community has halted trade at the main port in the war-torn capital, Mogadishu.

Businessmen are said to be angered by new rules that require all incoming items to go through security checks.

They say goods could be destroyed by Islamist insurgents if they have to wait in the port to be checked.

The port, which reopened in 2006 after 15 years of dereliction, is now guarded by African Union peacekeepers.

A long line of ships is currently waiting to dock outside the port.

'Taxless society'

Traders fear their goods will be destroyed by militants or ruined by the weather - it is the rainy season in Somalia.

The businessmen have to pay the proper taxes Abdirahman Omar Osman Treasury minister Road trip to Islamist heartland

But Treasury Minister Abdirahman Omar Osman told the BBC's Somali service the goods would be put into warehouses for safekeeping.

"The businessmen have to pay the proper taxes and afterwards the goods will be be released," he said.

"All these steps are government procedures and the government had consulted with the business community."

Analysts say during 18 years without a central authority, businesses have not had to pay tax.

The UN-backed government controls only a few key areas of Mogadishu with the help of African Union peacekeepers.

Much of the rest of south and central Somalia is in the hands of hard-line Islamist groups.

Correspondents say the port has been refurbished in the past two years, and is increasingly busy bringing in food aid and other supplies.

After nearly two decades of anarchy and conflict, some three million people - about half the population - need food aid, donors say.

The port has largely been safe from pirates, who threaten vessels sailing in the busy shipping lanes in the Gulf of Aden.