By Abdi Hajji Hussein (Radio Netherland)  — As I am on my way, passing residential neighbourhoods in the capital city, I notice government troops ready to take on insurgent fighters.

The purpose of my trip to Bakara is to learn more about the situation and the life of young people who work and live in Mogadishu. I want to know how they see their future and what they do when they are free from work and school. I manage to have a word with Hassan Mohamoud, a young boy who works in a grocery at the market.

“The situation here is very unpredictable”, he tells me. “In fact, you don’t know if you will live or die here. The artillery could be targeting Bakara market every day, killing and wounding many innocent people.”

Hassan is 25 year old and is the bread winner of his poor family. He is committed to staying at Mogadishu to help them. He works six days a week. Only on Fridays he rests – visiting his relatives in the morning and playing football in the afternoon.

Young generations, anywhere in the world, are supposed to be the backbone of society as they lead their nation towards development and economic prosperity. But in Somalia many younth are recruited by warlords and businessmen. With the aim of setting ablaze the civil war. The infrastructure of the country is in ruins and the war took a heavy toll of human life.

The next person on Bakara market I speak to is Samira Adam, a young girl and pupil of one of the secondary schools in Mogadishu. She told me that she was in her last year and determined to continue her education despite all fighting.

18-year-old Samina is ambitious and obsessed with the idea of becoming a doctor to help the war victims of her country.

Talking about her view on the situation of Mogadishu, she expresses her concerns: “I’m deeply worried about what is going on here in the capital. Many young Somali youths turn to so called leaders who are not interested in their future at all.”

Somalia, a nation in the horn of Africa, which took its independence in 1960, became a place where tens of thousands died in a long time civil war, drought and famine. Since the military regime led by major general Mohamed Said Barre was overthrown, more than one million people have been forced to flee their homes as the result of ongoing fighting

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