Mogadishu (pronounced /ˌmɒɡəˈdɪʃuː/; Somali: Muqdisho, popularly Xamar; Arabic: مقديشو Maqadīshū; Italian: Mogadiscio) is the largest city in Somalia and the nation's capital.
Located in the coastal Benadir region on the Indian Ocean, the city has served as an important port for centuries.
With the collapse of the central government in 1991, Mogadishu has been the stage for 19 years of fighting between rival militias. Years of civil unrest and u...
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Mogadishu (pronounced /ˌmɒɡəˈdɪʃuː/; Somali: Muqdisho, popularly Xamar; Arabic: مقديشو Maqadīshū; Italian: Mogadiscio) is the largest city in Somalia and the nation's capital.
Located in the coastal Benadir region on the Indian Ocean, the city has served as an important port for centuries.
With the collapse of the central government in 1991, Mogadishu has been the stage for 19 years of fighting between rival militias. Years of civil unrest and uncontrolled insurgencies against Ethiopian occupation have transformed Mogadishu into one of the most dangerous and lawless cities in the world. Estimates of the city's current population vary greatly, with figures ranging from 1.5 million to 3 million, as many of its former inhabitants have fled.
According to the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, maritime trade connected Somalis in the Mogadishu area with other communities along the Indian Ocean coast as early as the 1st century CE. With Muslim traders from the Arabian Peninsula arriving circa...
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