Catching up with Kismayo

After about five years away, I traveled back to the coastal city of Kismayo, the capital city of the Lower Jubba region as well as the interim capital of Jubaland state. It was my fourth trip to the city. I traveled to the city in 2014, 2015, and 2016. Sayid Mohamed Abdulle Hassan, the famous religious and military leader of the Dervish Movement, had the city’s airport named after him in May 2019. Upon landing there, things were smooth, unlike the past where I was interrogated and asked of a guarantor before I was allowed in.

Having said this, the airport screening, especially when traveling from Kismayo is terrible. There are no screening machines. Each traveler has to be frisked at three separate checks. I had to open my bag and my computer three times at close-range checkpoints. When I expressed my feeling to one of the soldiers about how inconvenient the screening is, he asked to inform his leaders to bring the screening machine to the airport.

The airport is about 12 kilometers away from the town. On my way to the city, I saw charcoal loaded in a place near the airport. The sun was hot, and I immediately felt the links between the heat, climate change, and the ecologically destructive charcoal trade. The region did not get enough rain this season and is forecast to reach the verge of famine. Nonetheless, It would require a lot of effort to make people in Kismayo and its surroundings aware of the negative consequences of cutting trees and deforestation.

Kismayo is a coastal city.  It is also close to where the Jubba River adds its water to the Indian ocean. The city has only one main water well drilled outside on the seaside of the town and its water is consumed across the city. The tap water is salty although some can afford to drink potable water processed by local companies in the city.

I arrived early in the morning, and I had some time to go around. My colleague, Ali, arranged a short visit to Goobweyn outside of the town a few hours after my arrival. We took a vehicle to get there.

We went through three checkpoints in a military camp although there is another road to use when going to Goobweyn. The first is a checkpoint staffed by the Somali forces. They interrogated us about where we were going. The second checkpoint is managed by the Ethiopian contingents of AMISOM (Kenya contingents are also in the town). They only let the vehicle pass when the details of the vehicle have been shared beforehand. An Ethiopian soldier asked how many of us are in the car, wrote down the number plate in a book, and allowed us to drive on. The Somalis at the first checkpoint passed our information to them. The Ethiopian soldier shared our information with other Ethiopian soldiers at the other end of the checkpoint who checked the plate number and allowed us to continue driving. There was a final checkpoint by SNA soldiers who were friendly.

Goobweyn is a beautiful and pleasant place. We could not go to the place where the Jubba River adds/connects its water to the Indian Ocean because of the heavy sand dunes. The places near Goobweyn are green, and there were farms near the river. Hundreds of camels, sheep, and goats were drinking water from the river. Nonetheless, all the livestock looked malnourished. Some other people who came as visitors like us were present and were taking photos. Children were swimming in the river. Other children were selling watermelon near the river. Some were fishing. The place is peaceful and everybody was busy with their own business. I appreciated the seemingly simple life of the area.