Somalias hovedstad er ved at vågne til normalt liv efter de mørke år – afrikanske sikkerhedsstyrker kontrollerer byen, hvor bortførelser, vold og selvmordbombere godt nok stadig er dagens orden, men ejendomspriserne også er på himmelflugt.
MOGADISHU, 18 May 2012 (IRIN): It is Friday morning in Mogadishu and Lido beach presents a scene reminiscent of (der svarer til) seaside towns around the world. At the top of the beach, women sit with their wares, selling water and ice-lollies (ispinde) from cool-boxes.
The middle-beach is dominated by young men playing football using driftwood as goalposts (målstolper). At the water’s edge, boys and girls, the latter heedless of their long flowing garments, hurl themselves into the waves or bob on the surface like apples.
“We are on holiday”, says Ibrahim, a Londoner in his twenties who was born in northern Somalia. Ibrahim is travelling in a group of 20, all from the UK. “We came here for the beaches”, he said.
On the road behind him, blue lettering advertises the Indian Ocean Star, a new beach-front restaurant and bar.
Bashir Osman has facilitated journalist visits for years and now plans to capitalize on the swelling ranks of visitors like Ibrahim who are choosing, for both business and personal reasons, to come to bullet-ridden Mogadishu.
Osman has purchased 500-metres of beachfront land a few kilometres south of the international airport compound, where he hopes to open a restaurant and eventually a hotel. His infectious (smittende) fondness for Mogadishu belies a strong philanthropic streak.
Reconstruction under way
People are returning and reconstruction is under way. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), 3.800 people returned to Mogadishu in March alone. From afar the city glints (blinker/glimer) with shiny new tin roofs dotted among dust-covered ruins and camps.
Private operators are offering electricity in the old town for 30 US dollarr a month. Fishermen are enjoying a healthy demand for shark-fins from Dubai and the Middle East, with a shark fetching as much as 500 dollar.
Building materials lie in piles on street corners, where camel’s milk and cappuccino vendors (sælgere) ply their wares.
International NGO and diplomatic missions are also coming back – according to a UN source, Britain has already identified the plot for its permanent diplomatic base on the airport compound – and property prices have spiked.
According to Osman, a 100-square metre plot near K4 in the city centre sold recently for two million dollar (ca. 11 mio. DKR).
“The key is security”, said Abdullahi Godah Barre, minister for planning and international cooperation, of the city’s renovation.
While African Union troops have largely taken Mogadishu and continue to push beyond the city limits to secure outlying areas where Al-Shabab operatives remain obdurately in place, the Somali capital is still in counter-terrorism mode, and kidnap and ransom (løsepenge), improvised explosive devices, and suicide bombers remain an everyday threat.
Turkish investors
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http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95480/SOMALIA-Mogadishu-on-the-up
