Somalia – abandoned by all
Pascal Maitre
pour National Geographic et Geo
In Somalia, you always think that things could never get worse, but something worse always happens.
I have been to Somalia five times since 2002, and from one trip to the next I have seen the situation get worse and worse, to the point where the country now appears to be totally engulfed in horror.
The last time I went through Mogadishu, I saw a deserted city; the only people to be seen were young militiamen, doped out of their minds on qat and shooting at one another, plus a few women and children, the poorest of the poor, without even the bare minimum needed to leave the city.
Since the collapse of the central government in 1991, Somalia has been decimated by violence. Death has struck in the form of shells, bullets and IEDs (improvised explosive devices), as disease and famine. Folly wreaking destruction continues relentlessly; the tension is tremendous, fear omnipresent.
Not a single western resident is left living in the capital. It is a very eerie and curious experience to work here as a photographer: you spend hours and hours sheltering at the hotel, then suddenly go out without any real idea of what will happen. You have to work quickly, very quickly, and can never stay more than about fifteen minutes in any one place.
Preview
The stress is unbearable: your bodyguards, your fixer and the people you meet are all in a state of extreme nervous tension. People always say, “Thanks for coming, but please don’t stay! Leave, or else you’ll bring trouble and disaster upon us!”
There is the constant danger of being murdered or abducted. Two journalists, Amanda Lindhout and Nigel Brennan, were abducted on the road to Afgoye on August 23, 2008, just ten minutes after I went through the same spot; and sadly they are still being held. Somalia is in a state that could be described as critical, or even moribund, but no one knows how to rescue the country on its deathbed. Every time I visit this battered country, I am asked the same question, particularly by young people: “Why have people deserted us? Somalia has been abandoned by all, except for the Wahhabites (strict Sunni Muslims) supporting Islamic extremist groups.
Life in Somalia is harsh, incredibly violent and incredibly short. The magazines Geo and National Geographic have had the courage, and provided the financial backing as well, to produce in-depth reports on Somalia, with the pictures shown here.
At the end of my assignment for National Geographic in February 2009, when it was time to leave I felt unspeakably sad, realizing that it would be a long time before I could ever come back to Somalia, realizing that I too was about to abandon the people of Somalia.
Pascal Maitre
Photos for Geo Magazine: September/October 2002 and May 2006
Photos for National Geographic: May, August and December 2008
