My Latest Mogadishu Photo Album

Here are some of the photos I took on my latest trip to Mogadishu

A sunny day in Mogadishu 

Mogadishu port is open for business

Dhow - many of the sailors are Gujaratis and Yemenis - many carry goods from Dubai.

The port is being run by a Turkish company

Mogadishu's first apartment blocks

I hope this will one day be my apartment (if I can afford it) 

My future Mogadishu jacuzzi 

Pakistanis putting in the lifts for the apartments

I got lost in Villa Somalia - home of the government

Eventually I found my way to the president's office - these are the 8 Somalia's presidents

With President Number Eight - Hassan Sheikh Mohamud

Negotiating road blocks can be tiresome and time consuming

The Turks have fixed some of the roads. 

So taxis and wheelbarrows filled with fresh Afgoye fruit can move around...

 ....except during the frequent security alerts and lockdowns...

 ...which disrupt business and daily life. 

 If you look carefully you can see the people are wearing face masks..

,,,they are the suicide bomb cleaner-uppers... there was a huge suicide bomb outside the airport... they cleaned up the body parts, vehicle parts and other mess.

I didn't take this photo - a Somali journalist did.. It's of the aftermath of the same suicide blast (apparently the suicide driver was very young). I was told the white people come to the scene of suicide blasts and take bits of 'evidence' away. I don't know what they do with it. And I don't know who those men are - but here are lots of people like them 'behind the wire' at the airport. Some wear NATO uniforms and 'train' people. Others are private contractors.

Mogadishu puppy who lives on the building site of the new seafront Turkish embassy. He lives on leftovers of the delicious meals prepared by Turkish chefs for the construction workers. He was plump and shiny.