Shattered Somalia…Sawiro

Source: National Geographic
September 2009

Ruins overlook streets where fighting tore the capital apart in the early 1990s, leaving the city, and the nation, in chaos.

A speeding pickup filled with Transitional Federal Government (TFG) forces narrowly misses women cleaning a capital street. With turmoil all around them, residents barely remember what life under a stable government is like.

In the quiet of an abandoned lighthouse, young people chew qat. The mild stimulant makes the hardships of life in Mogadishu feel more bearable. Ten airplanes loaded with qat arrive at a nearby airport every day.

Brimming with charcoal from southern Somalia’s dwindling forests, a truck rolls toward a port in Mogadishu. From there the charcoal will be shipped to Persian Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia, which enforce laws protecting their own trees.

Life in a Lawless Land
On the shore children still play, and fishermen drop anchor nearby, but the hulks of derelict hotels stand vacant.

Clutching bowls, boys wait at a feeding center for what could be their only meal of the day—a soup of corn and lentils. Once aid groups handed out dry rations. Now they distribute food cooked, to avoid attracting looters.

Near the ruins of Somalia’s old parliament, an unemployed traffic officer directs traffic for tips from drivers grateful for a sign of normalcy. “He thirsts for stability,” says Somali journalist Harun Hassan. “It’s inspiring.”

Going It Alone-Somaliland-Townsmen in the breakaway Republic of Somaliland shoulder goats to a boat for export. Hundreds of miles separate the former British colony from the turmoil in southern Somalia. With no international recognition and scant outside help, Somaliland’s leaders have built a stable, functioning government.

Oasis of Order-Somaliland’s fledgling government has managed to successfully crack down on pirates with a robust arrest policy. Last year authorities detained a crew led by Farah Ismail Eid (at left), now serving a 15-year sentence in Mandhera Prison.

In a cocoon of calm, women have their hair styled and feet decorated with henna in Hargeysa, Somaliland’s capital. “We are peaceful, not like Somalia,” says salon owner Zamzam Mohamed. “We will develop our country.”

Oasis of Order-Central-bank staff inspect newly printed Somaliland shillings, an independent currency created in 1994, a few years after Somaliland broke away from chaotic southern Somalia.

Dusted in flour, laborers in Berbera count their wages. For unloading sacks from a truck and stacking them in a warehouse in Somaliland’s main port, they were paid the equivalent of about three U.S. dollars each.

Oasis of Order-Rebuilt after dictator Mohamed Siad Barre bombed it flat in the late 1980s, Hargeysa is in the midst of a construction boom—with hotels like the City Center—mostly financed by returning expatriates.

European tourists used to swim in the pool behind the al Uruba, formerly one of Mogadishu’s best hotels. But visitors stopped coming in the late 1980s, after civil war broke out in the north of Somalia. Then the al Uruba, like much of Mogadishu, was reduced to ruins early in the 1990s.

Bales of qat newly arrived from Kenya will be delivered by truck to dealers near Mogadishu. Daily shipments of the leaves feed a drug habit roughly estimated to cost residents of the shattered capital $250,000 to $300,000 (U.S.) every day.

Registering to vote in Somaliland’s upcoming presidential election, a man in Hargeysa had his fingerprint scanned in December 2008. Originally planned for March 2009, the vote was postponed twice but is now scheduled for September. Though they have not yet officially recognized Somaliland as an independent nation, a handful of European countries and the U.S. donated three-fourths of the cost of holding the election—including funds that paid for this computer equipment—to encourage democracy in the region.

In the cool of evening, thousands of goats and sheep are herded aboard a ship at the Somaliland port of Berbera. Somalia’s economy traditionally depended on such exports. War in the south and concerns about livestock disease have stopped the trade periodically. But with stability established in Somaliland and a quarantine center operating in Djibouti, exports have resumed. Almost two million animals were shipped out of Somaliland last year.