Mogadishu

Mogadishu (Italian Mogadiscio), city in south-east Somalia, capital of the country and of Benadir Region, on the Indian Ocean, just north of the equator. Also called Muqdisho, it is the country's largest city, chief seaport, and commercial and manufacturing centre. However, economic activity was severely disrupted by the nation's civil war, which escalated in the early 1990s, and the city's infrastructure has largely been destroyed. Before the war, exports that passed through the modern deep-water port included livestock, bananas, and hides and skins; today the port functions sporadically. There is relatively little industry in the city, though there are factories producing processed food (especially meat and fish), leather, and textiles.

Among its places of interest are a 13th-century mosque, and the National Museum (housed in Garesa Palace, built in the 19th century by the sultan of Zanzibar). As a result of the civil war, the national educational system collapsed and most institutions of higher education in the city were closed, including schools of industry and veterinary medicine and the Somali National University (1954), which previously had an enrolment of about 4,600. Mogadishu University opened in 1997 and a campus of the Sudanese Al-Neeylain University was established in the city in 2003.

Mogadishu was founded around the early 10th century by Arab merchants; by the 12th century it had become a substantial trading station. A long period of decline began in the 16th century, and in 1871 the city came under the control of the sultan of Zanzibar. Italy leased the port from the station in 1892 and in 1905 purchased the city, subsequently making it the capital of Italian Somaliland. Mogadishu became the capital of independent Somalia in 1960. The city was devastated by civil war in the early 1990s and was the base for a United Nations (UN) peacekeeping and famine-relief mission in Somalia from 1992 to 1995. Many of the city’s buildings were damaged by fighting between rival clans and during clashes with UN troops. The peacekeeping forces left Mogadishu in 1995 having failed to restore peace and security to the city. Unrest continued into the 21st century, with periods of intense fighting between members of the transitional government and rebel warlords. Hope for a peaceful resolution to the conflict came in March 2005, when the Somali parliament, which had been in exile in Kenya since inauguration in August 2004, slowly began to return to government buildings in the capital. However, concerns over security in the capital remained and it was the city of Baidoa that hosted the first session of the interim parliament in February 2006. The following month the unrest flared again, with rival factions again battling to take control of Mogadishu and by June an Islamist militia group loyal to the Union of Islamic Courts (ICU) had seized the city. Population 1,175,000 (2003 estimate).