Twenty-two years of conflict have reduced Mogadishu to a razed wasteland, writes HARRY McGEE
BUILDING RUBBLE and trash were piled everywhere on the streets. Inside the shells of shot-out buildings multiple families were living in rickety tarpaulin shelters.
Camps housing hundreds of thousands of displaced people stretched as far as the eye can see.
There were a number of contexts that made the visit of Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore to Mogadishu yesterday significant. It is the 20th anniversary of then president Mary Robinson’s visit to Somalia; and it is also a year since another famine was declared after the country experienced high food prices and its worst drought in 60 years.
In addition, Mr Gilmore’s visit coincided with a national convention involving 800 political and tribal leaders from throughout Somalia.
The convention, which concludes next week, hopes to approve a new constitution and a new parliament that would also allow a permanent government take over from the transitional government which has been in place since 2007 (and ruled in exile in Kenya’s Nairobi for much of that time).
What made the visit possible was that the situation around the capital has improved markedly over the past year, especially since February, when forces loyal to the transitional government, supported by the African peacekeeping force Amisom, succeeded in pushing the hard-line Islamic militia al-Shabaab out of Mogadishu and its environs.
However, the security situation remains fragile and attacks have continued, albeit less frequently. It was for that reason the Tánaiste’s visit was shrouded in secrecy until it occurred.
Mr Gilmore travelled in a convoy of armoured personnel carriers and wore body and head protection throughout.
Notwithstanding the tight security, he had an opportunity to see in action humanitarian projects supported by Irish Aid and managed by Irish aid agencies.
His first visit was to the Wiil Waal school, managed by Concern, which provides an integrated programme for 750 pupils; a nutrition programme for mothers with malnourished babies; and a course directed at poor women helping them achieve financial independence.
The contrast between programmes such as this against and the fraught background is striking, like a little flower showing in a rubbish heap.
While the famine situation from last year has abated, the continuing effect of the drought has raised huge concerns about food shortages later this year, especially if the “Gu” rains – critically important for the harvest – fail.
Mr Gilmore yesterday pledged a further €3 million in aid from Ireland. Despite the devastated state of the city, increasing normality has returned with teems of people returning to the streets.
Nevertheless, the situation remains fraught. One-third of the country’s estimated population of 11 million is in need of humanitarian assistance.
Some 1.7 million people have been displaced internally and are living in camps on the fringes of cities such as Mogadishu. A further 500,000 refugees have fled across the border to appalling camps in Kenya and Ethiopia.
The prime minister of the transitional government, Dr Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, a Harvard-educated economist, said yesterday that much progress had been made on the road-map for the future of the country.