Port of Merca

The Port of Merca, also known as Merca Port, is the official seaport of Merca, situated in southeastern Somalia. It is classified as a jetty class port.[2] It has a harbour as well as a pier which juts into the Somali Sea.[3]

Port of Merca
The Merca harbor, showing the dock built in the 1930s
Location
Country Somalia
LocationMerca
Coordinates01°41′00″N 044°45′00″E
UN/LOCODESOMER[1]
Details
Operated byMerca Port Authority

History

The port was a small fishing inlet in the early 1900s, but in the 1920s the Italian governor De Vecchi created a "real' port installation, with a dock for ships for Italian Somalia exports of bananas.[4]

In the late 1920s and mainly in the 1930s there was a colony of Italian settlers in the port-city of Merca, that was greatly improved. The Port of Merca was the second in Italian Somalia and was nicknamed "port of bananas" (porto bananiero) because from there was exported in those years the huge production of Somali bananas toward Italy and Europe.[5]

In the city of Merca there was a huge economical development in the 1930s, due mainly to the growing commerce of the port of Merca connected by small railway to the farm area of Genale and Villabruzzi.[6] During WWII some damages were done by the British to Merca and the port.

The port had a minor activity in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. The Port of Merca was destroyed during the civil war in the 1990s, with all the remaining facilities for exporting bananas.

The port of Merca (and the city) was abandoned by government forces and captured by Al-Shabaab in February 2016.[7] It was recaptured by the Somali National Army along with African Union troops, a few days later. A small battle was fought in which a Somali soldier, several militants, and four civilians died.[8]

See also

References
  1. "UNLOCODE (SO) - SOMALIA". service.unece.org. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  2. "Istanbul conference on Somalia 21 – 23 May 2010 - Draft discussion paper for Round Table "Transport infrastructure"" (PDF). Government of Somalia.
  3. Webersik, Christian, et al. "Commerce in the chaos: Bananas, charcoal, fisheries, and conflict in Somalia." Livelihoods, natural resources, and post-conflict peacebuilding (2015): 365-90.
  4. De Vecchi di Val Cismon, Cesare. Relazione sul progetto di Bilancio della Somalia Italiana per l'esercizio finanziario 1927-1928
  5. Merca italiana (in Italian)
  6. Images of Merca and the port of Merca in the 1930s
  7. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/05/al-shabaab-militants-retake-somali-port-merka-african-union
  8. "Somali troops 'retake' key port city of Merca from al-Shabab - BBC News". BBC News. Retrieved 2016-02-06.

Bibliography
  • Antonicelli, Franco. Trent'anni di storia italiana 1915 - 1945. Ed. Mondadori. Torino, 1961.
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