Returning to Mogadishu

Returning to Mogadishu

I returned to Mogadishu, the city I grew up in, few days ago for the first time in years.  I wanted to see the whole city so we drove around for hours: the scars of two decades of war, and counting, were too visible.

Mogadishu was once a thriving beautiful city. It's by the Indian Ocean and it's blessed with beautiful weather and white sandy beaches. A short drive out of the city and you enter the lush gardens of Afgoye. Instead it's dirty, dusty and chaotic. For twenty years, lawlessness had become the norm.

 The streets are gone, famous structures like the parliament and the national theatre are nearly or completely destroyed. 

There is hardly a building without bullet marks. The areas al Shabab withdrew from are even worse: people who fled from there haven't returned yet. 

There's no local government to clean the streets, repair the roads or even control who can build what and where.

Mogadishu is visible a miserable and broken city: very different from Somalia's capital twenty years ago.

But there is the resilience of the people of Mogadishu. They learnt to survive and adopt. There's electricity, water and excellent mobile networks: all private for those who can afford.  Mogadishu's residents are also ready to relocate in case of fighting in their area. Clan loyalties has become stronger as well: those who're buying a house will try get a place close to the area their clan dominates.

Mogadishu housing market is booming: some of the houses go for as high a half a million dollars. It's still the largest and most diverse city in Somalia. But there's also the tragedy that many people left never came back: their houses are in ruins or are occupied by others.

The war also damaged the psyche of the city's residents. People are used to the sound of gunfire: they can accurately guess what type of gun was fired. Is it fighting or shooting in the air, they wonder, or if it was fired by the AU peacekeepers. 

For example, government soldiers clear traffic jams by firing in the air and people can tell from distance it's not a big deal. But death is also taken lightly: you always hear people who were shot for one reason or another.

Radio became essential to know which area there is fighting to avoid so there're a dozen or so radio stations.

The situation in Mogadishu is much calmer these days since the withdrawal of Alshabab from the center of the city. The big security problem these days are the thousands of militias who're now government soldiers: they lack discipline and training and often fight each other.

If the government can train them, impose discipline and remove most of them from the streets then that would drastically improve the security situation in Mogadishu.

In the past few months, Mogadishu has become one large refugee camp. New camps are created every week and hundreds of people are fleeing to the city everyday.

Mogadishu remains as Somalia's capital and the largest city and finding peace here is a good an important step towards ending Somalia's ongoing civil war.