Rail transport in Somalia Somalia-Ethiopia border. Somali troops from the First and Second Somali divisions of the Italian colonial army helped during the construction. Rail transport in Somalia Railway transport in Somalia consisted of the erstwhile Mogadishu–Villabruzzi Railway and secondary tracks. The system was built during the 1910s by the authorities in Italian Somaliland. Its track gauge was , a gauge favoured by the Italians in their colonies in the Horn of Africa and North Africa. The railway was dismantled in the 1940s by the British during their military occupation of Italian Somaliland, and was subsequently never rehabilitated. The 114 km of the Mogadishu-Villabruzzi
2009 timeline of the War in Somalia Insurgents fired mortars at the presidential palace in Mogadishu to which government forces retaliated with their own mortar fire which killed five civilians. Also, in fighting in the Wardigley district another nine civilians were killed. Fighting between Al Shabaab forces and a government backed militia in the Lower Shabelle region of KM60 resulted in the deaths of 7 Somali militiamen and 2 Al Shabaab insurgents and the capture of at least 100 militiamen as prisoners. In Bardhere Town SW Somalia an explosion killed 4 Somali militiamen including a commander and killed 2 civilians and injured two civilians. Abdirahaman Xaji Mohamed