SPOTLIGHT ON: MOGADISHU
Joining the ebullient traffic on Mogadishu’s main road of Makkah AlMukaramah, we travelled in convoy with a security detail towards Kilometre 4, the city centre, and a highly recommended new coffee shop,’ writes journalist Nick Redmayne in next month’s issue of Geographical. ‘At fortified checkpoints, my driver, Diric, briefly stepped out of the car, simultaneously stuffing an automatic pistol down the back of his jeans, and waved a benign salutation to nervous soldiers. He made eye contact and engaged in faux jocularity before proceeding steadily through concrete chicanes and on our way. In Mogadishu, you really had to want a good cup of coffee.’
Welcome to Mogadishu, the capital and most populous city of Somalia. Caught up in the country’s terrible civil war during the 1990s, the city and its people haven’t had it easy. But there is some hope. In 2012, presidential elections were held in Somalia for the first time since 1967. At the same time, the UN redrafted its description of Somalia to that of a ‘fragile recovering state’. Nick visited the city in February 2021 to judge for himself how much progress has been made. He found a place still shattered. For the population, bombed-out streets have been normalised. And yet there are signs of growth. In a local coffee shop, he met the people gradually working to rebuild Mogadishu – young people determined to provide nice things in the place dubbed the world’s most dangerous city.