Where the hoes at
How Somalia is changing the country after the war
- Thread starter Mtt
- Start date
I'm in Mogadishu right now. First time in my life in Somalia.
My dad started coming back in 2011. But left corporate America to start a new business with property my grandfather left him and my uncle in 2012.
I am amazed at what he's built here. It was the former Egyptian Embassy and they rented from my grandfather. My dad has made it into a business center and built more space for tenants. There's a restaurant renting from him using the roof of one of the buildings.
Mogadishu is relatively safe. I've hit the streets at night this week. Going to the beach last night to eat dinner had a bunch of checkpoints by police/soldiers. Many areas of the city have stepped up those security measures after Al-Shabaab bombed Liido Beach and other places in recent years..
If Somalia hits big with oil/gas, there is no reason why the city can't properly rebuild the roads, sanitation, plumbing, and including green spaces. They need way more sanitation engineers on the streets.
There are still areas you can see destroyed from the civil war in the 1990s. You also see high rises coming up and private businessmen are beautifying those spaces and their own private roads.
No urban planning to meld what the Italians built during colonialism, what was built post-independence, and the current era.
In terms of the people... the population is so young. But there's a lot of talented young people. They have no connection to the civil war and a lot of them don't want to migrate but build their country. I like to see that. Politicians are so corrupt though.
My dad started coming back in 2011. But left corporate America to start a new business with property my grandfather left him and my uncle in 2012.
I am amazed at what he's built here. It was the former Egyptian Embassy and they rented from my grandfather. My dad has made it into a business center and built more space for tenants. There's a restaurant renting from him using the roof of one of the buildings.
Mogadishu is relatively safe. I've hit the streets at night this week. Going to the beach last night to eat dinner had a bunch of checkpoints by police/soldiers. Many areas of the city have stepped up those security measures after Al-Shabaab bombed Liido Beach and other places in recent years..
If Somalia hits big with oil/gas, there is no reason why the city can't properly rebuild the roads, sanitation, plumbing, and including green spaces. They need way more sanitation engineers on the streets.
There are still areas you can see destroyed from the civil war in the 1990s. You also see high rises coming up and private businessmen are beautifying those spaces and their own private roads.
No urban planning to meld what the Italians built during colonialism, what was built post-independence, and the current era.
In terms of the people... the population is so young. But there's a lot of talented young people. They have no connection to the civil war and a lot of them don't want to migrate but build their country. I like to see that. Politicians are so corrupt though.
DaddyFresh
Superstar
great post brother. share more insights along your journey please
The African Union troops have been there since 2007. I went to a place called Halane which is near the airport to meet this British guy that my job may contract to do work for one of our projects in Jamaica. He's doing work with the British government in Somalia helping the government combat financial crimes and terrorism financing.great post brother. share more insights along your journey please
That area he's in is where the UK and USA Embassy is at. It's like the 'green zone' in Baghdad. Other international orgs like WHO, UN, etc have offices there.
The AU troops, many from Uganda are there too. I was talking to some of them. They were surprised to hear my American accent.
The Timberwolves are cooked breh
DaddyFresh
Superstar
fascinating. what kind of work do you do ?
I manage projects primarily funded by State Dept on security, crime prevention, justice sector reform. My org works in Latin America/Caribbean. We got hit hard like many others due to Trump's foreign aid freeze / mass terminations of USAID/DOS programs. But luckily, my team still has a bunch of projects left.
So when the British dude told me he was going to be in Somalia same time I'd be here, I was like let's get coffee in Mogadishu.
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Puntland is an Emirati colony Colombian mercenaries and Somalis are being sent by the Emirati intelligence to fight on behalf of the genocidal RSF militia to massacre civilians in Sudan 
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#BOTHSIDES
Superstar
This almost made every other point irrelevant that you said
Many places don’t develop due to corruption…
Nations need investments in institutions (schools, hospitals, etc) that’s the foundation
Yep. It's ridiculous. Resources are meager. Somali government just prepared a $1 billion budget for next year. Which isn't anything.This almost made every other point irrelevant that you said
Many places don’t develop due to corruption…
Nations need investments in institutions (schools, hospitals, etc) that’s the foundation
There's a hotel on the beach called Elite Hotel. You can google it.
It's owned by Abdullahi Mohamed Noor, a local Member of Parliament and former Minister of Finance for Hassan Sheikh in his first term.
He became known as the '30 year old with $30M"
Shabaab bombed it in 2020. But he rebuilt. I was there today.
#BOTHSIDES
Superstar
Interesting! Thanks for sharing that info! I’ll look it up
You have to wonder how much of that 1 billion is actually going to making the country better. I know folks have to be hesitant to pay taxes when it's just going to be siphoned away by corruption.
It's an absolute shame that you guys aren't a shipping powerhouse similar to Singapore because of your strategic position in shipping lanes. With your only competition being janky Yemen on the other side of the sea, an ideal Somalia would be killing the game.
