By: Mohamed Hirmoge
Killed or recruited by Al-Shabaab. Evicted by the government, displaced by Al-Shabaab.
At home, there is no hope. No work, no income, no future to grasp. Abroad, the road ends in the Mediterranean, where too many young Somalis meet their endbefore they meet their dreams.
It is a brutally hard time to be young in Somalia. This generation carries the heaviest burden of a broken system.
Their government is busy with power games. Troops are airlifted to settle scores with federal member states, while towns fall back into the hands of Al-Shabaab.
The conditions at home are terrible, and the prospects of a better future abroad come with fatal risks. Can’t leave, can’t stay, and the government doesn’t care. This administration’s only obsession is power, and how to cling to it.
Somalia’s youth is the country’s greatest strength. Almost three quarters of the population is under thirty. Most of them are dynamic, patriotic and entrepreneurial. But they are disillusioned. They’ve lost hope in the current administration, and the system it represents.
A nation that abandons its youth is a nation that abandons its future, but who cares?
Yet, despite it all, the resilience of Somali youth endures. They still dream, they still hustle, they still create where nothing exists. That spirit, if matched with real investment, honest leadership, and opportunities, could transform Somalia. Somalia’s youth are simply not a priority for the system.
We haven’t seen Prime Minister Hamza’s children, and for good reason, perhaps. They are most likely abroad, safe and well-to-do. The President’s children, on the other hand, are comfortably employed within the very system their father oversees. He even once defended his daughter’s presence at the highest echelons of power. His argument? She is a citizen, therefore entitled.
But here’s the point: it is not morally acceptable to place your own children within the system, shielded and privileged, while showing no concern when the children of ordinary Somalis are evicted from their homes or left to drown in the Mediterranean.
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Somali Stream.