After two decades of civil war and lawlessness, Somali’s capital Mogadishu has flourished in recent years and now wants to learn more from Turkish cities to modernize, The city has dispatched senior local officials to Konya, a provincial center roughly 230 kilometers (143 miles) south of Turkey’s capital Ankara, to observe economic development, job creation, and water and waste management in a modern urban setting.
According to the Secretary-general of Mogadishu Municipality and its surrounding regional administration, Hirey Ahmed Roble, Expressing his admiration for Konya, as well as that of other municipal officials, he said the visit made them realize that “we are living in the mid-1970s.”
“Honestly, what was seen there was astonishing,” Roble told Anadolu Agency (AA). “Konya is a city where a large percentage of its energy comes from using waste in a good management system, and we wanted to learn from them to share their knowledge and they were very welcoming.”
He said Mogadishu and Konya had reached an agreement for Konya to assist Mogadishu’s municipality to train its employees in water and waste management, as well as clean energy so that the Somali capital can get its modernization efforts on track and return to its glory days as one of the best-managed cities in the Horn of Africa region.
