In downtown Hargeisa
A construction crew is busy laying the foundation of the seven-storey glass and steel headquarters for a telecommunications company. Well-trained security forces stand guard outside the Somaliland central bank. Traffic police direct the steady flow of new Land Cruisers and ancient Peugeot taxis. Women shop for tomatoes and cabbage in the bustling market without the sense of fear that is so common in the rest of Somalia.
In fact, the residents of this dusty city do not even consider this to be a part of Somalia. To them, Hargeisa is the capital of the self-proclaimed Republic of Somaliland, a country the rest of the world does not recognise.
From Mogadishu, the regime of Siad Barre, a dictator, brutally oppressed Somaliland, launching army attacks and air force bombing raids on Somaliland rebels that killed 50,000 Somaliland civilians in the 1980s. After Barre’s ouster in 1991, Somaliland declared itself independent and the rest of Somalia began its downwards spiral into civil war.
Down town Hargeisa
