Somalia Jan 8-10, 2023
Somalia – Coastal and Northern (Mogadishu, South Galkacyo)
Borders: Ethiopia-Somalia, Somalia (sea border/port), Somalia (sea border/port)
Flight Ethiopian Airlines ADD-MGQ 08:55-11:05. Make sure to arrive at the Addis Airport International Terminal with lots of time to spare because of the two security checks, passport control and a possible long walk to the gate (mine was C5 and it is a long walk).
In the line for Somalia Passport control, I recognized Ric Gazarian and he turned out to be my one and only travel companion on the tour with Visit Mogadishu. Rick’s website is Counting Countries where he interviews prominent travellers. He also organized the giant Nomad Mania Extraordinary Meetup in Yerevan, Armenia in October 2022. He knows many fellow travellers, most on the way to 193. Originally from Boston, he lives in Bangkok.
Cost US$1250. The high cost is due to all the security necessary to see Mogadishu safely. Their vehicle is a new Toyota Hilux costing US$85,000 that has bulletproof windows and doors (the doors are heavy to close). On both days, we had 3 armed guards from the police force with us in the back of the truck and walking with us. We are told the high cost is due to all the security necessary to move around Mogadishu, but these three were paid only $20 per day and our driver $30 per day.
Al-Shabaab has a significant presence in Mogadishu. Members have infiltrated the government. They demand protection money from most businesses and have grown rich. Visit Mogadishu maintains a very low profile and does not have to pay protection bribes. They are presently the only company offering good tours.
MOGADISHU (pop 2,388,000 2021) locally known as Xamar or Hamar, is the capital of Somalia. The city has served as an important port connecting traders across the Indian Ocean for millennia. Mogadishu is located in the coastal Banadir region on the Indian Ocean.
History. It served as the capital of the Sultanate of Mogadishu in the 9th-13th century, which for many centuries controlled the Indian Ocean gold trade, and eventually came under the Ajuran Empire in the 13th century important in the medieval Silk Road maritime trade. Mogadishu enjoyed the height of its prosperity during the 14th and 15th centuries and was during the early modern period considered the wealthiest city on the East African coast, as well as the center of a thriving textile industry. In the 17th century, the Hiraab Imamate and in the 19th century, the Geledi Sultanate controlled it.
In 1894 the Hiraab chiefs signed a treaty of peace, friendship and protection with the Italian Benadir Company. Italian colonialism occurred in stages, with eventual direct governance by the Italian government after 1906, British Military Administration after World War Two and the UN Italian Trust Territory in the 1950s. This was followed by independence in 1960, the Hantiwadaag (socialist) era during Siad Barre’s presidency (1969–1991), a three-decade civil war afterward, and as of the late 2010s and 2020s a period of reconstruction.
Thousands of Italians and Sicilians founded small manufacturing companies across Somalia. They also developed some agricultural areas. In the 1930s, new buildings and avenues were built. A 114 km (71 mi) narrow-gauge railway was laid from Mogadishu to Jowhar. An asphalted road, the Strada Imperiale, was also constructed and intended to link Mogadishu to Addis Ababa.
In 1940, the Italo-Somali population numbered 22,000, accounting for over 44% of the city’s population of 50,000.
In World War II it was captured by British forces in February 1941.
Somali Republic (1960–1991). British Somaliland became independent in 1960.
In 1969, President Shermarke was assassinated by one of his own bodyguards. A military coup d’état ended in a bloodless takeover spearheaded by Major General Mohamed Siad Barre. He arrested members of the former civilian government, banned political parties, dissolved the parliament and the Supreme Court, and suspended the constitution. They started public works programmes, nationalized industry and land, and joined the Arab League in 1974. Barre arrested government and military officials and they were summarily executed.
Civil war. By the late 1980s, Barre’s regime had become increasingly unpopular and became more totalitarian. Resistance movements sprang up across the country leading in 1991 to the outbreak of the civil war and the toppling of Barre’s government. The civil war ended in 1997. Barre died in asylum in 1994.
United Nations peacekeepers led by the United States arrived. The militias that were competing for power interpreted the UN troops’ presence as a threat and several gun battles took place in Mogadishu including the Battle of Mogadishu of 1993, The UN withdrew altogether from the country in 1995, having incurred more significant casualties.
Recent History. In 2006, Islamists assumed control of much of the southern part of the country and imposed sharia law. Ethiopian troops, AMISOM peacekeepers and air support by the United States drove out the rival ICU and the first time since the fall of the Barre regime in 1991 that the federal government controlled most of the country.
The radical jihadist group al-Shabaab throughout 2007 and 2008 seized control of key towns and ports in both central and southern Somalia including Baidoa but not Mogadishu. Only an under-equipped African Union peacekeeping force offered resistance.
Ethiopian troops withdrew and a coalition government began a counteroffensive and by 2011, had captured all of Mogadishu from the Al-Shabaab militants. Mogadishu has subsequently experienced a period of intense reconstruction. In October 2017, over 500 people were killed by a truck bombing. In March 2022, al-Shabaab killed over 60 people in a series of attacks. In October 2022, an al-Shabaab double-car bombing killed over 120 people.
Reconstruction. In August 2011, al Shabaab made a strategic withdrawal from Mogadishu to return to hit-and-run tactics. A large-scale rehabilitation of roads and general infrastructure,
Geography, The sandy beaches of Mogadishu have vibrant coral reefs and are prime real estate for the first tourist resorts in many years. The Shebelle River rises in central Ethiopia, usually dry during February and March, the river provides water essential for the cultivation of sugarcane, cotton, and bananas.
Climate. Mogadishu is dry, hot and semi-arid, humidity is rather high, averaging 79% for the year. The mean temperature year-round is 27 °C. Precipitation per year averages 429.2 mm (16.9 in). There are 47 wet days annually associated with a 12% annual daily probability of rainfall.
Government. With a $100 million urban renewal project, garbage disposal, a citywide cleanup project, asphalt and cement plants, health facilities, a House Numbering and Post Code System, national identity cards
Several countries maintain foreign embassies including Djibouti, Ethiopia, Sudan, Libya, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran, Uganda, Nigeria, the United Kingdom, Japan, China, and Qatar.
Demographics. The Abgaal clan family, Arab and Persian migrants intermarried, plus Bantus and primarily Italians contributed to the city’s cosmopolitan populace. After 2012, Somali expatriates began returning to Mogadishu for investment opportunities.
Landmarks are predominantly Muslim mosques. Arba’a Rukun Mosque is one of the oldest Islamic places of worship (1268–9 AD) along with the Fakr ad-Din Mosque. The Mosque of Islamic Solidarity was constructed in 1987 with financial support from the Saudis and is the main mosque in the city, and an iconic building, with a capacity of up to 10,000 worshippers.
Airports: Mogadishu (MGQ)
Day 1 Sun Jan 8
We were picked by Ali and Mohammed, our guides and driven to our hotel, Green Africa Hotel. Both it and the airport are in the Green Zone, a large area of Mogadishu that is completely safe as it is fortified with containers functioning as blast barriers, a line of green rock-packed blast barriers separating it from the airport and a long high wall topped by razor wire that is the mammoth US base and the UN buildings. It also has the only hotels used by tourists, including ours.
The city is divided into the Green zone, the Yellow zone (a relatively safe zone) and the Red zone (not safe enough to leave the truck. To exit the Green zone, one moves through a tight area of concrete blocks. To enter the Green zone, we had to leave the truck and go through a scanner and an open “tunnel” formed of piled green blast bags. The truck was opened completely for a German shepherd to check out.
After lunch, we exited the Green Zone having to navigate an extremely tight set of large concrete blocks and drove to the Sahafi Hotel. We went up to the roof primarily to see the Hyatt Hotel that had been attacked in Aug 2022 by 5 terrorists. The army attacked them from this roof destroying the hotel. 29 died in the episode.
We then drove to the Mogadishu Mall, not a tourist attraction per se, but used to show that there are parts of Mogadishu that are modern and “normal”. This 3-story mall was constructed in 2016. Clothes were moved out into the corridors.
Ansaloti Market. This is a street market primarily catering to women – clothes, jewelry, produce. It occupies several streets with stalls under large umbrellas.
Lido Beach. Possibly 3 km long, it is a hard-packed white sand beach in the green zone. There were many locals in the water, all with tops on and many with bright orange life jackets. Most looked like poor swimmers. The Dolphin Hotel is an imposing white Italian-designed hotel that we walked up to the roof for good views of the beach. The hotel is not used much.
Day 2 Mon Jan 9
Mogadishu ruins. In the NM Dark Side series, there are several buildings destroyed during the Civil War.
• The Mogadishu Cathedral was built in 1928 by Italians in a Norman Gothic style but incurred significant damage during the Civil War. Near a sensitive area, we got views of the cathedral from the third floor of the Mogadishu Mall in a restaurant. The main bell tower is at its original height but significantly damaged.
• Lighthouse. The most iconic symbol of Mogadishu is an octagonal building, basically a ruin. The buildings around it are likewise ruins, the casualty of the civil war. There are the remnants of a mosque on a rock in the water and the remnant of a restaurant with only the pilings remaining. Ric flew his drone here getting great videos of the lighthouse area. The beach to the side of the mosque is the main landing beach of the fishing fleet.
• The National Museum of Somalia was established in 1960, when the old Garesa Museum was turned into a National Museum but is now a ruin. We didn’t see it.
• A ruined building at the site of the bombing in 2017. 600 people were killed..
Fish Market. I found this place depressing as 90% of the fish were tuna, some very large. But in retrospect, it was the only thing interesting in Somalia. Tuna stocks are rapidly depleting and they are endangered. The second most common were sharks, especially hammerheads. Some had their fins cut off. It was interesting to watch the guys cut up the fish. Many fish arrived being carried on the shoulders of one guy.
Bakaara Market was created in 1972 as an open market. During the civil war, the market was controlled by militant groups. In 2011, it was renovated selling everything from fruit and garments to building materials.
The market is still viewed as a “dangerous” place. We were not allowed to go into the area (red zone place) and could only see it from the vehicle. It is massive covering at least 7 city blocks.
Black Hawk Dawn Crash Sites and Remnants. In the NM Dark Side series, the site has been totally replaced by a 3-story building with no evidence of the incident. Close to the Bakara Market, we were not allowed out of the car and could only take photos from inside the car.
Nearby are an American tank and a Pakistani tank, basically neglected wrecks.
Gezira Beach. About 17 km from Mogadishu, this is a long, white hard-packed sand beach backed by a dune system. The only business is a restaurant. Anywhere else in the world, it would be packed with sunbathers and swimmers. There were a few fishing boats and 3 guys swimming.
In the bay is the Mosque of the Island and we took a boat over to visit the mosque. It is not used and was filthy inside. There is a bright green mihrab.
Mosque of Islamic Solidarity. This mosque was built by the Saudis in the mid-1980s. This mosque was difficult to see as it is in a sector of town with the parliament, national theatre, president’s residence and many government buildings. Villa Somalia is the official residential palace and workplace of the President of Somalia, The Governor’s Palace of Mogadishu was the seat of the governor of Italian Somaliland,
Our guide paid a general in the army $20 (normally $50 but reduced as he was a relative of Mohammed, our main guide). The general got into the car with us and took us to the theatre and the mosque. The mosque is an impressive large building with a single minaret and columns with gold designs. I wasn’t allowed to pass the top of the stairs and could not even look in the doors so moved around to see the prayer hall as best as I could.
Souvenir Shop. We were shown some very unattractive plates with wood constructions built.
Peace Gardens. A large area covered in plastic grass, it had several corny rides, a children’s playground and the “zoo” – two tiny pens filled with garbage containing a hyena and a monkey. A few photographers were using the area to take “portraits” of locals. There were “I love Mogadishu”, 5-sided stars and other slogans painted on some of the walls.
Day 3 Tue Jan 10
Flight MGQ-Djibouti @11:20 – 14:20
I had a good trip to Somalia especially as I spent the 3 days with Ric Gazarian, a fellow good traveller and the owner of Counting Countries.
I finally played pool and table tennis at the Green Africa Hotel last night.
