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 organization were shot and killed in south-western Somalia in Eelbarde town in Bakool region. In the Bay region al-Shabaab militants shot and killed a Khat trader. French special forces soldiers launched a raid on a yacht being held by Somali pirates freeing four of five French citizens being held hostage by the pirates. Two pirates were killed and three detained in the operation, and subsequently the fifth French citizen was shot and killed as well. No soldiers were injured or killed in the rescue operation. U.S special forces launched an operation to rescue an American sailor held captive by pirates