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Somalia

Safety and Security in Mogadishu: A Research Note

Attachments

1 INTRODUCTION AND EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Mogadishu remains Somalia’s most contested urban space, and this has serious implications for the physical safety of its residents. 1 Since the total state collapse in 1991, insecurity in Mogadishu has ebbed and flowed, taking on different forms and levels of intensity over time.
The city’s violent past has produced complicated patterns of inclusion and exclusion, grievances and aspirations, as well as different coping mechanisms by urban residents for various physical threats. Today, insecurity in Mogadishu takes on different forms, ranging from Al Shabaab attacks targeting government officials to inter-communal conflict, robbery and physical assaults. While some of these insecurities overlap, their spatial and social logics reflect historical settlement patterns, class dynamics, gender divisions and different degrees of social capital among the population.2 As the seat of the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS), Mogadishu – and the Benadir Regional Administration (BRA) that it is part of – remains a prime locus of political tensions, resource competition and conflicts between political elites. The capital city has seen rapid demographic growth, return migration and urban (re-)development after mass displacement created by the 2006 Ethiopian military intervention. Yet fundamental questions about the ‘ownership’ of Mogadishu – i.e. which clans are politically dominant in the city – that date back to the civil war remain unresolved. These questions create social stratification between those groups that consider themselves autochthonous to the city (and certain districts/neighbourhoods) and displaced populations of urban in-migrants, who often hail from historically marginalised clans.
Somalia’s chronically unstable national ‘political marketplace’ with its commodified use of violence (DeWaal, 2015), deeply seated grievances over urban property rights and the federal government’s inability to forge a social contract with its citizens on the basis of effective service delivery are among the main structural causes of instability in Mogadishu. They explain why a multitude of armed actors govern the city, straddling the border between ‘state’ and ‘non-state’ and constituting sources of both security and insecurity. As a result, city dwellers navigate a fragmented, uncertain and ever-evolving security landscape in the pursuit of their daily livelihoods.
This African Cities Research Consortium’s (ACRC) safety and security study on Mogadishu examines the everyday issues of insecurity that different residents experience and react to in two districts of Mogadishu – Hodan and Kahda. Hodan is a relatively central district of Mogadishu, home to a booming real-estate market, a growing middle class of professionals working in business, the humanitarian sector and state offices, as well as high-profile targets for Al Shabaab violence. In this district, exposure to unpredictable Al Shabaab attacks and fears of increasing street crime (violent armed robbery by youth gangs and/or members of security forces) were primary concerns reported by residents. Kahda is a more peripheral district that has only emerged as a recognized entity over the last 15 years. The settlement and development of the area are a result of significant displacement-linked in-migration from southern regions, as well as displacements of former inner-city residents as a result of earlier phases of urban violence and evictions. There is a much higher density of camps in Kahda (in comparison to Hodan) but also an increasing proportion of permanent structures and more ‘upscale’ development. Robbery was also reported as a major concern for many residents in this district, irrespective of whether they lived in camps or permanent dwellings. However, sexual and gender-based violence was a particular concern for the district’s most vulnerable residents: widowed or divorced women living in ill-secured IDP camps.
Neither Hodan nor Kahda are homogenous districts. Although they exhibit certain different spatial and social features, both are characterized by multiple forms of inequality that relate to gender, social class, and clan/racialized identities. Hodan, for example, is also home to internally displaced people in camps and informal settlements, whereas in Kahda there are significant socio-economic differences between those who live in camps and those who have permanent accommodation. These inequalities are experienced in exposures to different forms of violence and insecurity and access to the connections, social practices, and institutions that may reduce or mitigate risks and offer recourse for harm.
The research illustrates how different communities – and particularly displaced populations – face unequal exposure to different security threats. These findings are not new and have been reported in various studies over the last 10-15 years. However, more recent trends and dynamics can be identified in the data from this small-scale study:

• Arguably, public concern around prevailing security issues in Mogadishu is shifting towards youth related gang crimes (that may be overlapping with longer standing dynamics of security force involvement in robbery).

• More research is needed into the ways in which urban inequalities, a burgeoning youth population, and youth unemployment are driving this trend, as well as the extent to which social media is merely raising the profile/visibility of this type of insecurity, or exacerbating its frequency and severity.

• In relation to political violence, police appear caught between counter-terrorism and community engagement, which are difficult to undertake simultaneously (in that the need for confidentiality for effective counter-intelligence can run counter to logics of community engagement and trust building).

• The success of formal community-police initiatives (e.g. organized community watch collaborations) would be likely dependent on the wider prevalence of Al Shabaab activity in the city and state efforts against the group. Continued Al Shabaab presence in the city (or certain districts in particular) may continue to make people less likely to engage with state security actors given fears of reprisals. Such initiatives may not be suitable to undertake in all locations and further targeted research is necessary on possible avenues for police-citizen engagement (beyond the scope of the current research).

• Similarly, community relations with (and proximity to) police forces is viewed in different ways by different people. Police can be seen as both a source of security (closeness of facilities, prevention of crime through visibility) or insecurity (attracting political violence, killing innocent people such as bajaaj/tuk-tuk drivers, or accusations that police themselves are involved in criminal activities).

• Displaced populations’ security vulnerabilities intersect closely with wider issues faced by residents living in informal settlements, around social belonging, discrimination, widespread patriarchal social norms and ‘minority’ rights.

• Urban residents’ perceptions of ‘safety and security’ are undoubtedly informed by past experiences of different (and changing) forms of violence. Interviewee testimonies hint at the wider cumulative impacts of pervasive (but variable) insecurity in the Somali capital, and the need for further mental-health focused research on how this contributes to evolving security threats (e.g. the apparent rise in armed robbery).
Synthesising a range of academic and policy/grey literature on conflict and urbanisation dynamics in Mogadishu – as well as earlier studies by the authors on policing – the report first provides background to Mogadishu’s complex security picture, an overview of key security actors in the city, and the evolution of security issues in the two urban districts. Drawing from 30 in-depth qualitative interviews conducted by Somali Public Agenda researchers in July 2022 with a diverse group of residents in Hodan and Kahda, the report then presents and analyses interviewees’ lived experiences and perceptions of different forms of everyday insecurity. This section focuses on violent street crime, sexual and gender-based violence, and political violence. The final main section explores how spatial and social urban inequalities influence different levels of exposure to these types of insecurity and access to community and state-based protection and justice mechanisms (i.e. neighbourhood watch initiatives and formal policing).