‘You will be kidnapped in five minutes’: that’s what it’s like as a tourist in the most dangerous city in the world

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“If you hear gunshots, look at your cell phone,” says my Somali companion on my first evening in the Somali capital. Either it is the army training, an execution on the execution hill right next door, or an attack by Al-Shabaab terrorists. “If it’s serious, I’ll write to you!”

So that’s how it works here in Mogadishu, the most dangerous city in the world. The murder rate is among the highest in the world. Kidnappings are the order of the day. And not only terrorists are executed here, but also homosexuals and converts who turn their backs on Islam – the only permitted religion.

So turn on your cell phone loudly and listen. Speaking of which, I had to leave my earring at home, as well as my shorts. For men, both are absolute no-gos in the hot city on the equator. In any case, women only walk veiled through the streets, where traders sell clothes and dusty vegetables. The boundary between their displays and the waste piles next door is not always clear.

Tourists? Does not exist. Representatives of international organizations? Only in case of emergency do they leave their bunker offices in the closely guarded zone directly at the airport.

Murderous youth gangs and the warning in the travel guide

Because outside in the neighborhoods of the corrugated iron hut metropolis it quickly becomes dangerous for foreign visitors. “I give you five minutes, then you will be attacked or kidnapped,” says my companion, who does not want to read his name in the newspaper. A Swedish colleague was recently almost killed when she wanted to buy coffee.

There are an estimated two million firearms in the city of 2.6 million inhabitants. Mosquitoes spread malaria and dengue fever. The youth gang “Ciyaal Weero” roams the streets with their machetes, robbing and killing to produce brutal content for their Tiktok channels. The police in what is officially the most corrupt country in the world offer no help.

So every man for himself.

I sit on the roof terrace of our maximum security accommodation and look out into the courtyard. There are heavily armed guards behind the high steel gate. A wall with barbed wire surrounds the area. Here and there shots echoed through the air. No message on WhatsApp. So just training – or an execution.

I’m leafing through the African travel guide: it says Mogadishu is an ‘absolute no-go zone for Western travellers’, the ‘most dangerous city in the world’. There are no ATMs, data roaming, light signals and alcohol in the entire city. The historic old town: completely bombed during the 25-year civil war.

Disguised terrorists and the most dangerous fish market in the world

The next morning there is a visit to the deputy mayor. Out of the heavily secured accommodation and into the armored vehicle, of course with a bulletproof vest. 16 bodyguards with assault rifles and dark glares sit on the pick-up trucks that race in front and behind me through the streets of Mogadishu. The dirt roads in the city center are a dream for any off-road fan. Slender figures with colorful scarves walk outside along the dusty streets through the endless sea of ​​corrugated iron huts.

Vice Mayor Mohammed Ahmed (49) awaits us in his brightly lit office. In January, Al-Shabab militias stormed the mayor’s palace disguised as Somali soldiers. Corrupt guards had let them through. “The bullets flew around us, several people were killed.” Today, however, the city’s security problems are under control, says Mohammed Ahmed. ‘The terrorists are gone. Tourists are welcome.”

As if to prove it, he invites you for a harbor tour. With my camera at the ready and a few bodyguards in tow, I soon burst through a run-down fish market on Mogadishu’s seaweed-laden beach. Fisherman Yuni proudly displays the severed head of a tuna. A picture. Then I am pushed back into the armored car.

Why Blick traveled to Mogadishu

Next stop: the forecourt of the Peace Hotel, surrounded by walls of sandbags and steel walls to protect against suicide bombers. Last year, more than 120 people were killed in a nearby attack. Here is Ciccia, the old Somali woman, the walking tourist shop of Mogadishu (the duty-free shop at the airport is as broken as the only toilet in the departure hall).

Ciccia sells postcards, silver chains and Somali football shirts. Just no stamps. “We don’t have any mail,” Ciccia laughs. I ask her how old she is. “Oh, 60, 70, 80, I don’t know.” At least old enough that she can still remember when it used to be beautiful and peaceful here. And that was a long time ago.

In case you’re wondering why Blick came up with the idea of ​​traveling to the most dangerous city in the world in the first place, we wanted to cover one of the worst humanitarian crises of our time, which is unfolding around the Somali capital. . Here’s the story.

Source: Blick