1 terrible day in Mogadishu

Where do we start? Send out deep condolences’ to all the victims of yesterdays painful events.  A moment of madness, confusion and state of fear. The city of Mogadishu was paralyzed on the 14^th of April 2013 with a Taliban style type of attack at the Supreme Court in Xamar Weyne. It showed the vulnerability of the city and it must be a lesson to our armed forces to be more aware and vigilant regarding the activities of terrorist and their sympathizers. 

In what started as a normal working day, the city was buzzing and life was being carried on by citizens, trying to forget and forgive one another in order to move forward as a people. I was busy making plans to head out to the beach with a cousin of mine and before we know it, phone call after another informing me of the tragedy that was unfolding inside the court. My Father, who works inside Gobolka Banadir, was the first person to contact me. He told me pretty simple, “Son, we are all right inside our building but there is some fighting within the court and a lot of innocent people died”, a stab in the heart to our peace process and confidence with Mogadishu. We all thought the corner has been turned. 

As my work branch is located in the heart of the city, we hear whenever an explosion takes place within our radius. A thick boom which is instantly recognizable and a look at colleagues at their eyes suggest something terrible has just taken place. A feeling I wouldn’t want anybody to witness.

I got up, cleared my desk and headed straight out trying to keep the phone online with my father. I knew almost everybody would try to contact him to see if he was safe but I didn’t want to hang up just to be confident. I thought about driving towards the area or even close by but realized that in Mogadishu, trust is rare and anything is possible so I did the rather other smart decision and went over to our house.

Patiently waiting, news was spreading over the attacks and I looked around, fear was what had taken over people’s faces. To me, a good sign as I am sure citizens of Mogadishu had witnessed worse attacks but it outlined to me that the city had gotten used to the period of peace we currently are witnessing and that nobody wanted to let it go.

As my father walked in, I realized that once you leave the front door, anything is feasible as I am sure that it is in any other city across the world. Life is unpredictable and one can never know what is around the corner. 

Trying to clear our minds and updating my audience in social media sites, we heard another explosion, this time; it was close, just after the KM4 junction heading out to the airport with gunfire following. We thought, ok we are now under attack so what is our administration doing? But then you realize that our government is not to blame for these cowardly attacks, after all, we only are just reviving from 21 years of no authority. We are at war and the enemy is amongst us. Peace will take time and we must have faith and support our authorities to defeat this common enemy we all have. 

Evening news had cleared more on the events which have taken place on this painful day. As it is in nations across the world, when a national tragedy occurs, it unites the people more. But would this terrible event of 14^th April 2013 unite us to boost our war with these Terrorist organizations? Only time will tell.

Cowardly attacks like this should only make us more determine to reclaim our beautiful nation.

Mohamed Hassan (Dj)