Mogadishu learns to enjoy its reclaimed liberties

A basketball game in progress at Lujino Stadium, Mogadishu, emblematic of Somali life without the power and presence of al-Shabaab in the streets. Picture: Reuters

Rebuilding a life that many in the world take for granted is a slow and often imperfect process. Extreme Islamists still control swathes of countryside and some towns, and have launched several attacks on the city since 2011.

Last month, they showed their reach by striking a Kenyan shopping mall.

However, residents of Mogadishu appear determined to enjoy their newly reclaimed freedoms and not be deterred by the threats.

With al-Shabaab no longer in charge, the city’s youth flock to the beach or gather at coffee shops to chat, testing the boundaries of a still conservative society.

Residents savour the new routine of shopping at well-stocked stores, filling up cars at petrol stations rather than buying jerry cans from roadside vendors, and even enjoying a night out at the clutch of restaurants and hotels rising from the rubble.

“We had none of this freedom during the years of Islamist rule,” said Samira Aden, aged 18, her hair – which would have been covered under al-Shabaab’s strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law – dripping with seawater.

Many overseas Somalis are returning after fleeing during years of fighting, when the country was carved up by clan warlords before Islamists took charge of Mogadishu in 2006.

Their money has spawned arts venues and sports clubs.

“Business is booming in Mogadishu,” says Abdisalan Nur, manager of the Fathi hotel and restaurant. “We have spaces for men, spaces for women only and spaces for couples.”

Near the beach, a new guesthouse has a swimming pool, a tennis court and children’s swings. Adults pay $30 a month to join while children can splash in the pool for $3 a day.That is way out of reach for many Somalis who scrape by sometimes on just a dollar or two a day, however. Prices are being pushed up by the richer returnees.

“It was violent before but life was cheaper then,” said Farah Jibril, 36.

The more liberal attitudes of the young and Western-educated people coming from abroad have also become a source of friction.

“I enjoy Mogadishu and the newly-born democracy but people from the diaspora have taken it too far,” said Sabdow Aden, who is unhappy seeing young people on the beach showing too much affection.

Al-Shabaab, which has threatened more attacks, echoes this.

“All the evil practices are done by people from the diaspora just to mislead our young generation,” an official at the group’s media office said.

Reminders of the fragility of the gains are always present – a suicide bombing closed the National Theatre after it briefly reopened last year. And in June, 22 people were killed when al-Shabaab gunmen stormed a United Nations base in the capital.

“The threat coming from al-Shabaab in Somalia is more dangerous and not less,” said one western diplomat, who was also commenting on the attack claimed by al-Shabaab on a shopping mall in Nairobi in September in which 67 people were killed.

The government led by president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who took over last year, says the Islamist group has been weakened.

“Security is improving by the day and the government is doing everything in its power to contain al-Shabaab,” presidential adviser Abdirahman Omar Osman said.

The government still has to rely on an African peacekeeping force whose control in the nation of 10 million barely extends beyond the capital. Many areas in Somalia are still waiting for the peace dividend Mogadishu enjoys.