Good topic however many of you are ranking things based on emotional and sentimental reasons not being rational.
Let us rank it based on number of factors such as size, economy, infrastructure, safety and living conditions.
Based on these factors, we should score on each field 0-10; 10 being the highest.
I would say for infrastructure Djibouti gets the highest
For economy, Mogadishu gets the highest (there is a lot of money in Xamar)
For safety I would rank Hargeisa and Djibouti the same. They are both very safe cities.
For size Mogadishu gets that followed by Hargeisa
For living conditions Hargeisa takes that clearly followed by Jigjiga.
Djibouti is very expensive place to live and thus conditions are tough while Mogadishu is a war zone.
Based on these factors I would rank
1) Hargeisa (good score on safety, living conditions and size) & Djibouti (high on safety, infrastructure)
2) Mogadishu (business activities high)
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6) Jigjiga (very small town that consists of one street, not much opportunities there apart from performing dhaanto for the DDSI, very few infrastructure, relatively safe---people still live in fear from regime, ONLF, etc)
Hargeisa is still the #1 city, due to her growth in such short period and will soon surpass many in the region but her biggest downfall is lack of infrastructure (roads, sewage, water problems, pathways, public transport)
I still rank Bosasso, Galkayo, Kismayo and Burao higher than Jigjiga. Jigjiga is the size of Garowe with a better airport.