Back to Mogadishu

I’m finally beginning to catch up. I didn’t realize how far behind I was in the blog until I sat down to capture the last couple of months. Ugh.

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Soon after returning from the US, I needed to turn around and head to Mogadishu. There were some relatively important meetings to attend and, to be honest, it was important to be back after such a long break.

I had a few small meetings with staff and a couple of larger meetings inside the “green zone”. The first event was a humanitarian forum pulling together the government, civil society and international community to discuss the humanitarian situation in the country and also chart out the way forward in responding to current and future humanitarian shocks. It’s a large event and must be held in the “green zone” due to the large numbers of people from the international community who are unable to leave the protected area for security reasons (primarily UN and embassy officials). It would also be a considerable security risk to have such a collection of potential targets at a more exposed venue.

the guy not paying attention on the left

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Thankfully, we had the resources earlier this year to purchase an armored vehicle which facilitates my movements outside the “green zone” and to/from our office-guesthouse. Formerly we were using vehicles from a private security firm which wasn’t ideal.

our clean new vehicle; they haven't even take the plastic off the headrests

After the event, I returned to the office for both internal meetings as well as some virtual meetings. It can be a pain to have evening meetings but given that our HQ is in NY, it inevitably happens sometimes. I had been away for a long time so it was expected that my agenda would be full for a couple weeks.

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The next morning, I would return to the “green zone” for the next event. This gathering also consisted of government officials, civil society and international community. As expected, there were a few people from the day before that I saw again at this event.

I'm in this one too but not very visible. You can see the top of my head to the left of the photographers on the right half of the photo. PM is front and center with the blue tie.

It took place in a nice hotel adjacent to the airport. Several government ministers were in attendance, including the Prime Minister. The focus was the rollout of the government’s strategy for durable solutions – interventions that are designed to look beyond the more acute humanitarian response and focus on longer term needs of communities and individuals. It’s always much easier to develop a strategy than it is to fund and implement the activities. Consequently, it's all a bit aspirational. As is always the case, one needs to keep one foot on the cynical side and the other on the idealist side, never moving too far in either direction where it can render you useless.

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That evening was uneventful. I had my usual call with my family, let the know I’m okay, hear about their day, etc. I’ve always struggled with insomnia and the week leading up to this trip was particularly bad, fueled in part by jet lag from travel to the US. Given the calls to prayer that happen in the early hours of the morning, and various noises in our neighborhood in Mogadishu, it makes sleep a bit of a challenge.

On this particular morning, the challenge was more significant. At 5:30am I was lying in bed partially awake and suddenly there was a large explosion. It sounded like it wasn’t too far away from our office. I wasn’t sure what type of explosion it was (for better or worse, I'm getting pretty good at distinguishing between sinister and non-sinister bast/gunfire sounds) but I would find out later it was a mortar attack. That would be in the sinister category. There would be four more over the next several minutes, none as loud as the first.

As I normally do, I stay away from the windows and check my phone. We have a WhatsApp security group where our head of security is remarkably reliable about sending a message in the minutes after an attack. When the message came it, it clarified that it was indeed a mortar attack seemingly targeting the airport/”green zone”. The trouble is that these attacks are not very precise and anything in the vicinity is potentially vulnerable.

I was supposed to fly out later that morning and I admit that my first thought was whether or not this might jeopardize my intended travel. Pathetic human that I am, my second thought was to hope that no one was killed (thankfully no one was, though there were a couple of injuries).

It’s a sobering thing to be around such things. On multiple occasions I have been in Mogadishu when there have been attacks, some closer in proximity than others. It’s not ideal but, at least for now, it’s part of what I do. It’s a stark reality for people that live here and in other parts of the world. They face it far more than I do so I shouldn’t complain. But no civilians should have to deal with this sort of thing.

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 I did make it to the airport a couple hours later. There was no sign of any attack and "green zone" security seemed to be functioning as normal. This is a resilient place and a resilient people.