Along the way, streams of motorised rickshaws jockeyed for position, but sensibly deferred to 4x4s carrying armed men. At fortified checkpoints, my driver, Diric, briefly stepped out of the car, simultaneously stuffing an automatic pistol down the back of his jeans and waving a benign salutation to nervous soldiers. He made eye contact and engaged in faux jocularity before proceeding steadily through concrete chicanes.
In Mogadishu, you really have to want a good cup of coffee. Independence following the Second World War saw a democratic construct falter and fail. Estimates suggest that, to date, , people have died as a result of the conflict. Foreign intervention perversely catalysed the emergence of the ideologically driven Al- Shabaab militia, which allied itself with Al-Qaeda and grew to control much of the country.
Somalia became the definitive failed state. However, in , following advances by the African Union and troops supplied by the Transitional Federal Government internationally recognised as the provisional government of Somalia from April until August , Al-Shabaab fighters withdrew from Mogadishu and later lost control of all of the major provincial centres.
In , presidential elections were held for the first time since and the transitional government became the Federal Government of Somalia. In February , I visited Mogadishu to judge for myself how much progress had been made. We turned off down a rough side street and pulled up outside a modern-looking shopfront. Here, year-old Somali Najiib Abdullahi and his Canadian-Somali wife had opened a busy coffee shop.
A graduate of Istanbul University, Najiib described his experience as a young entrepreneur in the Somali capital. When we came, there was nothing. The road was impassable. No one believes we can have a business here.
