The reality is that two-thirds of Somalis are under 25. A huge number of these young people are fed up with living in conditions of grinding poverty, with little prospect of work. The challenges facing Somalia are enormous.
David Cameron will warn that failure to support the rebuilding of Somalia will lead to "terrorism and mass migration" as the international community g...
The freeing of Mogadishu was a turning point and might not only make Mogadishu a more peaceful place, but also set Somalia on the right path to stability - an opportunity it had not seen for at least twenty years.
We need a twin-pronged approach in Somalia. Continued humanitarian assistance for the poorest families, but also aid to help them plant crops again and rebuild their lives.
In 1979, newly recruited policewoman, Asha Hassan Hussein, was the first female to ride a police motorcycle to patrol the streets of Mogadishu.
Since my brush with death at the Ashura bombing in Kabul, and my crack on the head, I have developed a disturbing ability. In the same way that bats can locate moths by echolocation, I have discovered that I can locate furniture with my shins. We never stop learning it seems. It started in Dubai when I jammed my foot into a table and sliced my toe open.
Members of Somalia's Olympic committee and football chiefs are amongst 10 people killed after a suicide blast in Mogadishu. Al-Shabab militants hav...
There is something about Mogadishu that lives with you, which creates questions for which there are no answers, and opens your eyes to 21st century schooling. It's a piece of theatre, which deserves your attention, if only to fuel your conversations for the next few weeks.
This week I visited Somalia's capital. Mogadishu is a city where people until recently were surviving, not really living. As its Mayor said to me, a 20-year-old Somali has never known anything other than violence and war... I left Somalia more convinced than ever that we have a responsibility to do our utmost to stem the decline of Somalia. Its people deserve a better future, and our own security requires their country to become more stable.
Somalia is a direct threat to the UK's security because it is one of the "most dysfunctional countries in the world", International Development Secret...
I stand by a pool of stagnant water. It looks fairly innocuous, –dirty and strewn with rubbish, but harmless. It’s hard to believe that just days ago this water came rushing through Sigale Camp, leaving destruction behind it.
We're right there in the room as a father, worn down by a low-paid job and family tragedy, humiliates his bullying son, desperate to stop him throwing his life away. We're listening over the shoulder of a head teacher in his office as he brutally washes his hands of a good colleague, because social services have decided to investigate her home life.
Stricken Somalians are desperate for humanitarian aid after the worst drought for decades continues to blight the south of the country, killing livest...
No parent should have to watch their child die. One of the first mothers I met in Sigale camp, Mogadishu, told me how she had had to do just that. Fleeing from her home because of the drought, unable to feed her children, she trekked seven days with her four children to Mogadishu to find refuge. On the way her youngest child, still breastfeeding, died. There was nothing she could do. She looked exhausted, and hadn't eaten herself for four days but was determined to save the lives of her three remaining children.
