Read: Somalia at fifty-Surviving the chaos of Mogadishu.

South Central Somalia turns fifty years on 1 July since independence from Britain in 1960. For many Somalis, there is little to celebrate as the country has been wracked by conflict for nearly two decades.

Nearly 1.4 million people have been displaced from their homes due to fighting, which has been going on for nearly two decades.

Most of the fiercest fighting has been for the control of the capital, Mogadishu, which currently is being held by different armed groups.

For the residents of Mogadishu, you never take life too easily as it means living under the threat of shelling every day. Thousands of people have been forced to flee from their homes due to fighting in the Somali capital between the Transitional Government, TFG and armed groups opposed to it.

Since the beginning of the year 200,000 people have fled the worsening violence, particularly in Mogadishu according to estimates by the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR.

The agency says many of those displaced have fled into neighbouring countries. But for others, like Sahro Arwah Idow, have sought shelter in nearby Afgooye corridor in Lower Shabelle region.

The 15 kilometre Afgooye corridor is home to more than 360,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs). It hosts the largest concentration of refugees in the world.

Nur Ali Ahmed, 51, is as old as the Somali nation. Born an year before Somalia gained its independence from Britain in 1960, the father of five-has seen the best and worst of this country.

“I remember the good old days when our parents could send to government schools for free learning. Today, it is very hard to send your children to school. Life has become a struggle for survival, ‘’ he says.

Somalia has had no central government for nineteen years since the collapse of the Siad Barre regime in 1991.

Abdullahi Ahmed Farah, 19, epitomizes Somalia’s ‘war generation’. Farah is among the lucky youngsters whose lives were not cut short by either conflict and disease or enticed to join militia groups.

A United Nations report released early in June accused all parties to the conflict of being involved in the recruitment of and use of children as soldiers. The report claimed that children as young as nine years old are being recruited.

The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has urged all parties to release the children in their ranks, terming the use of children by armed forces and groups as a war crime.

Given the hostile environment of conflict, war and drought growing up in Somalia is not easy. Nearly half the country’s population – 3.2 million people are in desperate need of relief aid and assistance.

A recent survey by the United Nations Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU), showed that Somali women and children are suffering from shocking levels of anaemia and Vitamin A deficiencies.

The study indicates 50% of all women, 30% of all school aged children and 60% of children under five were classified as anaemic

Aweis Jeylaani Shakata, had just turned 18 when the Siad Barre regime collapsed in 1991, and life hasn’t been easy since.

Shakata, who is 36 years old now, owns a shop. A father of six, he earns his living from the family shop.

Located along Via Roma street in Hamar-Weyne district of Mogadishu, Shakata sells sweets, biscuits and caramel. He has also stocked household items, such as brooms, cooking oil, fat, and grains. Shakata says that toffee and biscuits are best sellers and especially during the muslim festivities of Idul Fitr and Idul Adha .

“One kilogram of toffee sells for fifty five thousand Somali shillings- which is slightly less than two US dollars and a kilogram of biscuits goes for sixty thousand Somali Shillings equivalent to two US dollars.’’

Despite the hardships, Somalis are known for having a spirit of entrepreneurship; and Shakata seems to have inherited that spirit from his father as he has three other shops which are run by his brothers.

“We also run two bakeries that specialize in wedding cakes. So far, we have not experienced any problems. However, sometimes there are problems of insecurity and we have to cope with that reality,’’ he says.

Another Mogadishu resident who had to learn to fend for his family from an early age is Cadnaan Mohamed Ali who runs a barber shop. Ali, who is 27 years old lives in in the Hamar-weyne district of Mogadishu and is married with three children, and also takes care of his three brothers and two sisters.

“As the eldest son, I am the sole breadwinner for all my family. They all depend on me because none of my parents or my siblings work.”

Cadnaan started working as a barber from the age of seventeen after his father became too ill due to hypertension and diabetes.

“I had to get a job to sustain the family. I have sustained my family for the last ten years out of the income I make.. For the first three years, I earned very little money which was not enough for the whole family. But right now, our circumstances are much better,’’ he says.

Daily earnings from the barber shop sustained him and his family, and business has been profitable in good times.

“We charge 20,000 Somali Shillings (0.6 dollars) for a hair-cut and 15,000 Somali Shillings for beard and mustache cut. With these earnings, I can make approximately 10 US dollars a day as profit and I pay my two employees based on commission (30%). I also use this money to settle electricity bills which is $1 per kilowatt and rent which is 30 US dollars per month”.

But life is not all smooth for Ali. Somali’s clan system also plays havoc on their daily lives, with discrimination and harassment for those who hail from what are considered minority clans.

“As a barber, I sometimes face problems from customers who are from armed clans; we are not able to protect ourselves from them because there are is no effective police station where we can register our complaint.”

“Last week, for example, my colleague served a young man who had come to the barbershop for a haircut. After the haircut, the young man suddenly stood up and took out a pistol and directed it to us without saying a thing.”

“When we asked him what was wrong he told us that he was going to kill the barber because his haircut was done badly. Fortunately, we solved the problem by asking the young man to leave and that the haircut was free of charge.”

These are the same problems that Ali Hussein Fanoole- a cobbler at Via Roma Street, in Hamar weyne district of Mogadishu encounters.

“We sometimes face problems from armed groups from different clans and we are not able to protect ourselves as minority groups since our clans are not armed. Sometimes they refuse to pay for services rendered by simply complaining that we have not done the job well.”

Fanoole , 53, earns a living by making new shoes and repairing old shoes in his shop. He lives with six of his children, having lost eight of them who died in childhood.

“I also repair briefcases, and also make holsters for guns and shoes for disabled persons. I have been doing this for the past thirty five years. It is a profession I inherited from my father and I earn my living from this work’’ he says.

“A new leather sandal costs between 150,000 and 200,000 Somali shillings, that is about 4 to 6 US dollars . We buy the leather from Bakara market, which is one of the biggest markets in Mogadishu. Then we design and produce new shoes. Unfortunately, we do not have any modern equipment to use for producing these new shoes.”

Shakata, Ali and Fanoole are among the lucky few who can sustain their families from their earnings. Nearly half the country’s population, that is 3.2million people depend on humanitarian assistance for their livelihoods.

Another third of the population depends on remittances from relatives living abroad who regularly send financial support. According to the United Nations, a million Somalis in the diaspora sent $ 1 billion dollars to their families living in Somalia.

Half a decade after independence, Somalia is still in the Western news media  for the wrong reasons. Pirate attacks on ships along its vast coastline has had a huge economic impact for many countries as insurance costs sky-rocketed.

The world’s attention will continue to be focused on Somalia for sometime as the conflict and other natural disasters exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in the country.

The United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki Moon has a new special envoy for Somalia, Dr Augustine Mahiga. Dr Mahiga, who until his appointment was Tanzania’s ambassador to the United Nations, has his work cut out for him as he tries to deal with the complex political and social situation facing Somalia.

The author is an aid worker in Somalia