Mogadishu is the capital city of Somalia which has been destroyed by marauding militia and warlords who have been fighting over the past 16 years. There was a time when these warlords were chased away by Islamic courts Union but the courts were themselves routed by a transitional government with military support from Ethiopia while America provided the funds. The clerics were allegedly accused of harboring remnants of Al-Qaeda who were thriving in the lawless nation of Somalia. I was inspired by Eng. Mohamed Ibar, A dynamic Somali poet currently residing in the Netherlands who recently posted a Somali poem on Mogadishu at the widely cherished Somali website of Hiiraanonline.

Once a regarded as champion of peace
Mogadishu is now possessed by anarchy
Once known to be a source of stability
Mogadishu is now a city of instability

Being next to Bagdad security wise
It buries scores of its people daily
It is now a ghost in its former soul
It is a converging point of all devils

In her eyes tears of pain are drying
Civil war has reduced it to a rubble
Its schools have been terribly looted
Its hospitals were made militia camps

Its children die every hour in agony
Women are depleted and run down
They are living in the hands of death
They rate high in maternal mortality

Despair is the only hope looming over
But in the heart of darkness I see light
Hope begins when despair is at peak
Patience can fill the depths of sorrow