Lawlessness Again Rampant in Somalia : Africa: Remaining U.N. peacekeepers are ill-prepared. Looting is widespread.

Less than a week after U.S. soldiers left, the gates of Mogadishu’s port were knocked to the ground, thefts multiplied and Somalis began smuggling weapons past Egyptian sentries.

The remaining U.N. troops have less training, less discipline, poorer equipment and greater problems in fulfilling a less ambitious U.N. mandate.

Relief groups have abandoned outlying cities, claiming that U.N. troops cannot or will not protect them. The U.N. World Food Program complained to the commander about difficulties in arranging escorts for food convoys. A U.S. aid worker was kidnaped Thursday in sight of a U.N. checkpoint.

Looters descended on the airport even before U.S. Marines lifted off in their helicopters. The seaport has been overrun by Somalis who breeze past Egyptian sentries with counterfeit passes, weapons and booty.

Lt. Gen. Datuk Aboo Samah, the U.N. commander, has 19,000 soldiers, most of them from Third World countries. He said they are fulfilling the new mandate to protect the humanitarian effort and secure the port, airport and U.N. facilities.

Some have been killed or wounded trying to protect aid workers. Still, confidence in their ability to provide that protection is ebbing.

“I am firmly convinced the only security we are going to get is from Somalis who work here,” said Ed Johns, the tall, lanky Texan appointed by the United Nations to run the port.

Johns said looters had managed to carry items as large as washing machines and generators past Egyptian military guards.

With the gates knocked down, port workers now block the opening at night with a cargo container.

U.N. military officers acknowledge problems, some caused by language or cultural barriers. Pakistani troops, for example, have refused to escort some food convoys on Fridays, the Muslim sabbath.

Somalis, stressing Muslim brotherhood with the Egyptians, routinely talk their way past sentries at the port, Johns said.

Aboo, the commander, said that the rules of engagement have changed slightly, with emphasis on using minimum force.

To illustrate, he said U.N. troops no longer will engage “technicals”--pickup trucks with weapons mounted in the back--unless directly threatened. Previously, technicals were engaged on sight.

In a city where guns are already returning to the streets, some people fear the technicals will become a common threat again.