Dozens of families have been moved out of the ruined building
A project has been launched in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, to rebuild the country’s national library. Dozens of displaced families had been sheltering inside the building which has been badly damaged by decades of conflict. The project director, Zainab Hassan, told the BBC that thousands of students currently had no access to books.
Work on the new complex is expected to be finished in six months’ time at a cost of $1m (£600,000).
The money is coming from the Somali government as well as business people and civil society.
This is what the new building should look like
Already 20,000 books have been donated from the United States and around 60,000 are expected to come from Arab nations. Ms Hassan said she hopes the library will teach people to love reading. She admitted that a large proportion of Somalia’s culture and history is oral and has not been documented.
The building should restore Somalia’s history for future generations,” she said, adding that there was a need for knowledge among Somalis. Al-Shabab militants have been driven out of Somalia’s major towns, such as Mogadishu and the port of Kismayo, by a UN-mandated African Union force of some 18,000 soldiers.
Since then, many Somalis living in the diaspora have returned to help in the reconstruction of Mogadishu. However the militants have carried out intermittent attacks and suicide bombings on the capital in recent months and still control large parts of southern Somalia.
However the militants have carried out intermittent attacks and suicide bombings on the capital in recent months and still control large parts of southern Somalia
Source: BBC News
How many of you saw the public library in Hargeisa? now compare that to the three-storey building in Mogadishu and i mean the real photo not the new design. No wonder Hargeisa didn't get the recognition after 22 years. I won't even say we are deluded but more like sleeping and once Mogadishu stand on it's feet we will be forced to wake up and seek compromise. I haven't seen one clean street (or even a spot) in Hargeisa and i live (for the last couple of years) in Hargeisa or maybe we need ictiraaf to clean our streets? It's easy to debate politics but the real question is what somalilanders have done for Somaliland since 1991? the answer is clear.
P.S. Don't bother to reply to my comment if you haven't seen the public library in Hargeisa!
You build your library with your history and not books donated by USA and others. Where is your history? I know they have been used as Toilet Paper.
Somalia destroyed what they could of the Somaliland history, but we did rectified the lost with history in poet and songs that God has given us, and some bits and pieces we collected from the citizens who care for it and kept hidden from enemy – Somalia
loll, those somalis are crazy, even books are a result of donation! Somalis love anything that comes out of no work