Mahad Wasuge

I received an invitation from the Doha Forum, the International Crisis Group, and the African Union Political Affairs, Peace, and Security Department on November 20 to participate as a speaker at the 23rd edition of the Doha Forum, held on December 6–7, 2025, at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Doha. I was particularly invited to speak at a closed-door roundtable session titled “State-building in Somalia: Coordinated Strategies to Sustain Progress.” It was a great and rare opportunity to be invited as a speaker for my first time attending the Doha Forum. This year’s theme of the Doha Forum was Justice in Action: Beyond Promises to Progress.

I recently received an invitation to attend the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Arta Peace Conference and the inauguration of the Arta Peace Memorial. The memorial has been built at the same location where the historic conference for Somalia was held 25 years ago. I was pleased to receive the invitation and happy to know that efforts had been made to document evidence of that important conference for Somalia that led to the birth of the Third Republic – the Transitional National Government (TNG).

I recently traveled to Garowe to attend the third Annual Peace Conference, held from 21–23 September 2025. The conference, convened annually by the Puntland Development and Research Center (PDRC), often begins on 21 September—the International Day of Peace—and focuses on peace-related issues. This year’s theme was “Climate, Peace, and Security: Building a Peaceful and Resilient Future.”

Nearly three months ago—April 7, to be exact—I was selected to participate in a Transformational Leadership course scheduled for June 9–20, 2025, in Arusha, Tanzania. I submitted my application on March 24, the final deadline and the same day I received the request to apply. It was during Ramadan. Fortunately, I was nominated and then selected for the course, which was tailored for leaders from both governmental and non-governmental institutions across Africa.

I travelled to Kismayo on Friday, 23 May. The trip was part of a series of roundtable discussions that Somali Public Agenda (SPA) and Puntland Development Research Center (PDRC) were convening to explore options for compromise on FGS-FMS relations, constitutional review, and elections.

On the early morning of Thursday, 27 February 2025, my wife, Shukri, called me with heartbreaking news: my beloved sister, Fowsiya Abdullahi Hussein, had passed away just moments before. At the time, I was in Nairobi, far from Mogadishu, where she took her last breath. The news overwhelmed me with grief. As I turned on my internet, I saw numerous missed calls from my mother and siblings. The painful reality set in—I had to plan her burial alongside other family members in Mogadishu. That same day, we laid her to rest.

Despite these realities, this is home. It is where I feel a sense of belonging. I visited and spent time with family members, relatives, neighbors, and friends. I asked my mother about the neighbors and visited them.

Dear son Mohamed,
This has been an important week for our family and for you. You have successfully completed the memorization of the Holy Quran, and we had the privilege of witnessing you speak in front of hundreds of participants at your graduation ceremony on December 4. You cannot imagine how proud we were to see you

From my childhood, I was very interested in working a media as a newscaster or

On 30 August 2021, my dear brother Abdikarim Abdullahi Hussein died in Buulaburte. It took me almost three years to put the painful feelings of his departure into writing. I was reluctant to write about the death of my beloved brother and the heavy emotions and pain I felt when he died.

My friend Mohamed Omer invited me to attend the Somali Youth Summit, which took place in Jigjiga between 25 and 27 November this year. I had never been to Jigjiga before, and I was interested and excited to visit the town and engage with its people. There is no direct flight from Mogadishu to Jigjiga. The two options I had were a transit to Addis Ababa or a flight to Hargeisa and then make road trip to Jigjiga. I wanted to maximize my travel experience and opted for the latter option.

I have previously written two blogs reflecting on ten-year milestones. The first, which was widely read and shared, was a reflection on the ten years I lived in Mogadishu. The second blog was about my ten years of teaching. Now, it is the ten-year milestone for my blogging journey. I thought it would also be appropriate to write a blog for this landmark. I published my first blog 10 years ago today – 15 September 2013. I reflected on my journalism experience. At the time I wrote and published that blog, I was a school teacher, not a journalist. I reflected on how, in 2008-9, being a journalist was my dream job but I ended up being a teacher.

This is the first travelogue I am writing for a trip outside Somalia. When I first started these travel blogs in 2014, my mission was to document and share my experiences and observations in the Somali cities I visited. Although I frequently travel to countries in the Horn, I often don’t write about these visits. Dar es Salaam Tanzania, unlike other regional cities I visited, has many similarities to Mogadishu, and this is probably my main motivation to write this piece. Someone familiar with Mogadishu and Dar es Salaam told my colleague traveling from South Africa to Dar es Salaam for the same meeting that Dar es Salaam is like the old pre-1991 Mogadishu.

I have been writing travel blogs about the towns I visit in Somalia since 2014. I was not, however, able to write about my previous visits to Garowe. 2014 was the first time I visited Garowe, but it was a short trip and spent only two nights there. While heading to Burco, I stopped over in Garowe for about an hour in September 2016. In August 2019, I stayed several nights, all in transition to three other districts – Badhan, Buuhoodle, and Gaalkacyo. In February 2021, I traveled to Garowe for a study I was working on with Somali Public Agenda and stayed for about a week. I did not manage to write a blog post on all these occasions. The time to write one for Garowe has finally come.

In the early morning of May 29, 2022, I woke up to the terrible news of the death of my friend, the long-time peace activist Abdullahi Shirwac. Following a sudden stroke, he was in a coma for about a week in a local hospital in Mogadishu where he died. It was entirely unexpected heartbreaking news for me as well as his close family, friends, and acquaintances. I could not digest the news for a while.

In March 2022, I traveled to Beledweyne for a Somali Public Agenda study. Since I concluded my secondary level education in Beledweyne in mid-2009, this was my fourth trip to the town. In the past 13 years, I had the opportunity to visit in 2010, 2018, 2021, and now 2022. This time, the Ugaas Khaliif Airport had a new terminal.

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.

I have had the privilege to travel to many towns in Somalia in the past eight years, but I did not visit any of the towns in the Gedo region. Recently, however, I had an assignment in the border town of Dolow, and everyone I asked told me that it is the safest town in the Gedo region. Nevertheless, I departed Mogadishu feeling unsure about how my trip would work out.

Although I have travelled to many Somali cities in the past eight years, I had never been to Jowhar, the capital city of Middle Shabelle region. Jowhar is also the capital city of Hirshabelle state – the newest federal unit – which was established in October 2016. I was excited that I was finally traveling to this historic town.

Going back to Buulaburte – my hometown – had a lot of emotional attachments. The last time I was in the city was August 2010, when I was about to start my sophomore year at Mogadishu University. I was now going back to the town after ten years and six months (or 10.5 years) on 16 February 2021. This time, it was not only me. I went back with my wife and our three young children – it was the first visit for all of them. We were all happy and excited about the trip.

Twenty years ago today, on a Thursday morning, 7th December 2000 (10th Ramadan 1421) my father died in Buulaburte, a district in the Hiiraan region. That night I was sharing a room with my three younger brothers. We woke up crying.

On 19 July 2020, I travelled to Dhusamareb, the capital of Galmudug State, for Somali Public Agenda study on Galmudug reconciliation process. It was my first trip to the famous old town. In the past, I visited several Galmudug districts, but access to Dhusamareb was not possible at that time due to the presence of Ahlu Sunna Wal Jameeca (ASWJ), which was at loggerheads with the Galmudug administration then based in Adaado.

After 11 years since our graduation from Sheikh Mohamed Moalin Primary and Secondary School in Beledweyne, I spent a memorable day with some of my high school classmates in Mogadishu. We had a lunch and afternoon tea/coffee together at the Peace Garden (Beerta Nabadda) in Mogadishu, a green space that people come for photos, weddings, celebrations and family gatherings.

On a sunny August day in 2019, I landed at Garowe’s Gen. Mohamed Abshir airport. I had visited Garowe several times in the past, however, this was the first time I had used the city’s new airport. This was the beginning of a three-week trip. During this period, I visited Badhan, Buuhoodle, and Gaalkacyo (North).

It was exactly ten years ago today, 14 August 2009, when I came to Mogadishu with a mission to study at university. It was the second time I had left my home town, Buulaburte, for study. Three years earlier, in 2006, I went to Beledweyne to pursue a secondary education because there was no high school in Buulaburte. When I finished secondary school in Beledweyne in June 2009, the city had no university. The nearest possible place I could access higher education was Mogadishu, the capital city of Somalia.

It was my third trip to Hargeisa. Last time I traveled to the city was November 2016 when I stayed two days. This time I was excited to be traveling to Hargeisa although I had concerns and uncertainty about the airport. A few weeks ago, the passport of a friend of mine was confiscated in Mogadishu airport after the immigration officers found that the Somaliland immigration authorities stamped an entry visa for the Somali passport holder upon his arrival at the airport.

Xarumihii waxbarashada Soomaaliya oo ay ka mid ahayd maktabaddii qaranka waa la burburiyey kadib markii xukunka laga tuuray dowladdii militariga sanadkii 1991-dii. Sanado badan oo burbur, dowlad la’aan, sharci la’aan, iyo dagaalo dabadheeraadey ah ayaa xigay. Xaaladda waxa ay ahayd mid aad u adag suurtagalna ma ahayn in ay maskaxda kusoo dhacaan maktabad iyo buugaag.

Somalia’s education institutions including the national library were totally destroyed after the state collapse in 1991. Years of destruction, anarchy, lawlessness, and protracted conflicts followed. The situation was arduous and libraries and books could hardly come to mind.

The extradition of Abdikarim Muse Qalbi-Dhagax to Ethiopia in late August this year highlighted the ambiguity of Somali citizenship. Qalbi-Dhagaxis a prominent member of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), a group seeking self-determination for the Somali region of Ethiopia. He was said to have been visiting a relative in Gaalkacyo when Galmudug security forces captured and handed him over to the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA). A few days later the news of his rendition to Ethiopia had been made public.