In 2014, Kenyan author Rasna Warah arrived in Mogadishu to launch a book she had co-authored Somali historian Somalis, Mohamud Dirios and Ismail Osman. It was a depiction of how the Somali capital Mogadishu had lost its face in the three decades of war and subsequent violence from Al Shabaab militants.
The authors had named the book: Mogadishu Then and Now. But nearly a decade later, the face of Mogadishu may be worse. Most ancient buildings have been left to decay and nearly half million people are internally displaced by all kinds of disasters from conflicts, climate changes and other natural or man-made tragedies. In Hamarweyne and Shangani districts, what stood as iconic architecture is all gone or defaced.
