Ghost capital Mogadishu springs to life after years of strife

By JUMA KWAYERA

Captain Jorum Kembo was on patrol with fellow Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) soldiers when he spotted a group of Somali youth. They were headed for a building on Balaad Road. It was Sunday after sunset, three months after Al Shabaab fighters had been pushed out of the capital Mogadishu. Out of curiosity and aware that Al Shabaab would do anything to conscript young fighters, the soldiers went to inspect the buildings. Their fears were wiped by high-decibel music – and hip hop at that — and the patterned blinking of green, red, yellow and blue light. It was a discotheque! Mogadishu was experiencing nightlife, and safely so.