Somalia learnt little from its worst attack

It has been two years since Somalia’s most devastating terrorist attack on October 14, 2017 in the capital Mogadishu that killed more than 600 people and left many others injured or missing. As we mark this sad anniversary and send heartfelt condolences, we owe it to the victims to ask questions on the city’s preparedness to effectively respond to disasters of a similar or worse scale in future.

I was the mayor of Mogadishu and governor of the Benadir region when the horrific attacks occurred, and I vividly recall the crisis that Mogadishu was plunged into. I was among the first to reach the scene, having passed the spot only 10 minutes earlier heading to the office. We realised quickly that our limited disaster response capacity was simply no match for the disaster, and we resorted to mass mobilisation of the people to support the disaster response and give the support they did.