- 2 months ago
Simon Reeve travels from the coral coast of Kenya to the troubled Horn of Africa on the third leg of his Indian Ocean journey. He meets women who make a living from making handicrafts out of mountains of plastic pollution that fetches up on their beach. In war torn Mogadishu, capital of Somalia and....
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00:07The Indian Ocean, home to the world's most exotic islands and beautiful and rare wildlife.
00:19I'm traveling through 16 countries around the edge of this vast ocean that stretches
00:246,000 miles from Africa to Australia.
00:30Steeped in history, the Indian Ocean is vital to world trade.
00:35It's a journey of extremes, from stunning islands, across pirate-infested seas, to remote
00:44villages and war-torn lands.
00:52What was that?
01:04This is a journey about much more than just what's under the waves.
01:09It's about the lives of the millions of people who live around this, one of our greatest oceans.
01:21On this leg of my journey, I travel from Kenya to Somalia and through the Horn of Africa.
01:29In one of Africa's most spectacular river deltas, I meet the villagers defending their homes and
01:34their way of life.
01:42I travel north from Kenya's wild and beautiful coast on the most dangerous leg of my entire
01:48Indian Ocean journey to war-torn Somalia and the front line of a battle against piracy and
01:54terrorism.
02:03My last stop is in Somaliland, a country which doesn't officially exist, where I join youngsters
02:10on a very special trip to the seaside.
02:12The Indian Ocean!
02:14The Indian Ocean!
02:26I've reached Kenya on my journey around the Indian Ocean.
02:29I'm heading towards Somalia and the Horn of Africa.
02:33It's going to be a tough trip, but Kenya's Indian Ocean coast is spectacular!
02:40Whoa!
02:42Quick, quick, quick!
02:43Look, look, look, look!
02:44Dolphins!
02:45They're all around us!
02:46There's dozens of them!
02:49Whoa!
02:50This is an incredible sight!
02:54From the spectacular Casite Marine Park, I was travelling the length of Kenya's coast
02:59coast with my guide, Michael Kaloki.
03:03Michael?
03:05Michael Kaloki.
03:09The national parks and beaches down here in the south are a huge draw for tourists.
03:15More than a million people visit Kenya each year for a mix of sea, sand and safari.
03:31We're on the road, we're heading up the coast and our first stop is the port city of Mombasa.
03:41Kenya's second city has been an important Indian Ocean trading centre for more than a thousand
03:46years.
03:47It's now home to a million people.
03:51Mombasa is actually on an island, so we just need to take a little ferry to get across
03:55to it.
04:01Here we go, we're going on board.
04:06On the ferry to Mombasa!
04:12So look, they let the cars on first and then come the foot passengers.
04:22The ferry is the main way into the city from the south coast for people, vehicles, goods,
04:28everything.
04:37So this is the port of Mombasa just here, this is one of the biggest ports along the East
04:41African coast, if not the biggest.
04:47Mombasa's port is a vital trade hub for this entire region, handling almost 20 million tons
04:52of cargo a year.
04:56Hundreds of years ago, merchants traded ivory, grain, spices and gold from here across the
05:02Indian Ocean to India and even as far as China.
05:09And it's not only mega container ships that are now bringing the world's goods to Mombasa.
05:15Through the back alleys of the old town, Michael took me to see the more traditional side of
05:19modern Indian Ocean trade.
05:22So Simon, this is the old port?
05:24Yes.
05:24Of Mombasa.
05:28Ageing wooden dhows, like those that have plied the Indian Ocean for centuries, still offload
05:33their cargo here.
05:35Oh, there are some people in there.
05:37Hey, hello.
05:37Hello.
05:40Where have you come from?
05:42From Pakistan.
05:43From Pakistan.
05:46I think they might be coming to get us, Michael.
05:49They'd sailed across the Indian Ocean from the north, where I was heading.
05:53I was keen to hear what lay ahead for me.
05:55Is it okay to come aboard?
05:59Salaam Alaikum.
06:02So this is the captain.
06:03He's got a very fine outfit on.
06:05You're the captain.
06:07And where have you come from?
06:10You came from Pakistan?
06:11No.
06:12Pakistan, Mogadishu, Kismayo, then Mombasa.
06:17Pakistan, to Mogadishu in Somalia, Kismayo in Somalia, then Mombasa.
06:23Captain Hafiz Balok and the crew of the Al Faisal II had sailed through dangerous waters,
06:28arriving the day before with 800 tons of cargo, including rice, sugar and cooking oil.
06:35Oh, little hatch to post myself through.
06:39Oh, this is a beautiful ship.
06:45Now this, captain, this is a great sight.
06:49A proper wheel.
06:50Too many ships now.
06:51They just have a little computer here.
06:54There's some little joystick to drive the ship.
06:57Okay.
06:57This one.
06:58Oh, you've got...
07:01This one?
07:02No need anybody.
07:03No need.
07:03Autopilot.
07:04You say, I want to go from Karachi to Mogadishu, ch-ch-ch-ch, and boom, you're off.
07:09I'm sleeping.
07:12On my journey, I was planning to visit Mogadishu, the war-torn Somali capital, possibly travelling
07:18by boat.
07:19The captain had other ideas.
07:21Do you think it would be safe for us to travel from Mombasa in a ship to Mogadishu?
07:27No.
07:28Not safe?
07:32Sometime, pirates come inside the boat.
07:34Really?
07:35Yeah.
07:36They take food, telephone.
07:39Satellite phone, television.
07:41Sometime take clothes.
07:42Take your clothes off you.
07:43Yeah, sometimes.
07:43Incredible.
07:45Incredible.
07:46And they're holding a gun at you, presumably.
07:48Yeah, yeah.
07:49And this has happened to you?
07:50Yeah, yeah.
07:50RPGs.
07:52Really?
07:52So that's a sort of rocket-propelled grenade?
07:54Yeah, RPG.
07:55Very big.
07:56My goodness.
07:58Mogadishu is more difficult.
08:00Mogadishu, very, very difficult.
08:02Now I'm in Mogadishu blast.
08:05And now I come from Mogadishu, there's too much problem now.
08:08You mean blast?
08:09You mean conflict?
08:11War?
08:11Fighting?
08:12Suicide bombers.
08:13Suicide bombers?
08:14Yeah.
08:16I'm ready to my mind when I go in Somalia, maybe I'm not come back in my home.
08:23What does your wife say when you leave to go towards Somalia?
08:27She pray every day for me.
08:30For you to return safely?
08:36The waters of Somalia are the most dangerous in the world for shipping and sailors.
08:41I'd need to find another way to get to Mogadishu.
08:49In the meantime, I left Mombasa and headed north up the coast, towards the region of Kenya that borders Somalia
08:56and has its own security problems.
08:59We're heading into an area where there's been bandit attacks in the past and we've been told we need to
09:05take police guards with us.
09:09Michael, it feels a little bit like we've entered the Badlands.
09:13Well, I would say this is more or less seen as perhaps a sort of frontier district in some way.
09:22I wanted to visit an area of international ecological importance that's now at the centre of a bitter dispute.
09:30The Tana Delta is where Kenya's longest river meets the Indian Ocean.
09:43That's a great view, eh?
09:45Indian Ocean, all the way along the horizon, of course, and for quite a bit of a way beyond.
09:52And then just down here, this is the mouth of the Tana River.
09:57And this is what we're going to explore.
10:02The Tana River Delta is not on Kenya's tourist trail, but it's one of the most important wildlife sites in
10:08the whole of Africa.
10:10There's a crocodile over there.
10:15A whopper!
10:17You certainly don't want to leave your fingers in the water then.
10:19Not a good idea.
10:24The Delta is a refuge for both larger animals and more than 350 species of bird.
10:32UK charity, the RSPB, has identified it as a wildlife site of global importance and is campaigning for its protection.
10:41Because this is a twitch's paradise.
10:44So we think that's a malachite kingfisher.
10:50Right underneath, a fishy hill just up here.
10:55Magnificent.
11:02We've come round a bend in the river and where there was forest before, now the view has opened up.
11:08And the tragedy, though, is that developers are planning to come in here and carpet this whole area with sugar
11:16cane.
11:17And that, of course, is going to be an absolute disaster for the wetland and for the birds.
11:25The Kenyan government is trying to sell off the Tana Delta so vast areas of sugar cane can be grown
11:31on the land.
11:32Some of it to sell to Europe as an eco-friendly biofuel.
11:37This won't only affect the wildlife.
11:40Around 90,000 people live in and off the Delta by fishing and grazing their livestock on its fertile grasslands.
11:48After you.
11:49Thank you, mate.
11:52After a five-hour boat ride, we came to a settlement.
11:58The villagers had only recently arrived here.
12:02They were thrown off their land elsewhere in the Delta by TADA, a Kenyan government development agency.
12:11In the last few years, TADA has evicted thousands of families in the area.
12:17I went to meet the village chief.
12:20.
12:34It says, welcome, you are free to walk whatever you want.
12:37You are free to sleep in our village.
12:40So you are welcome.
12:41.
12:42Okay.
12:44It turned out the villagers had been evicted several times by TADA.
12:47So you've been forced to move from one place to the other.
12:53Can you explain to us what happened when you were evicted?
12:58The bulldozers gathered around the village and started to clear the ground.
13:04When they got near to the huts, the children ran away.
13:09When they tried to enter our houses, we resisted.
13:14And they brought the police.
13:17And they started to beat us and used tear gas.
13:20One of the villages was shot.
13:24Surely Tada have compensated you in some way for taking away your land?
13:31We didn't get any compensation because they said it is not our land.
13:34It's theirs.
13:35And we have to leave.
13:46As you can see, there are some houses that are being constructed now.
13:52Maolidi Diwayu is a committed local campaigner who is fighting for the rights of the people of the Delta.
13:59So they've been forced to move to this location?
14:03Yeah, actually they have been forced to move anywhere because they were not identified a place.
14:07Oh really, so they were just told to move without caring where they were going.
14:13Could we help these women at all?
14:15Could we help them with their...
14:16I don't know if they will agree.
14:18If a man is seen building this house, he is considered not to be a full man.
14:23Well I'm quite happy to suffer that indignity.
14:26You have volunteers!
14:29So there's one here, and there's one here.
14:32This is the door.
14:33Yeah, this is the door.
14:35Okay.
14:39Oh dear.
14:41I missed.
14:47Diwayu's hole is significantly wider and deeper than mine.
14:54Here we go.
14:55Hey, where's Kamaji?
14:56Oh no!
14:57Oh, disaster!
14:59You are not a sharpshooter.
15:03That's enough!
15:05That's enough!
15:05Oh, that's enough?
15:05You have succeeded!
15:07Yay!
15:11A doorway emerges here!
15:15How many people will be living in this home?
15:17This house is going to be occupied by about 10 people.
15:21And presumably they must be hoping and praying that they don't get evicted again.
15:27Of course, yes.
15:28They are going to be evicted again.
15:30This one now is still in Tarda land.
15:34So they could actually be evicted again?
15:36Yes, of course.
15:38They have to be evicted again.
15:4825 villages and more than 30,000 people face eviction under the government plans for the Tana Delta.
15:55They will lose their homes as well as grazing land for their livestock.
16:00All of us will lose a vital habitat for birds and wildlife.
16:04Instead, companies will farm sugarcane to make fuel for foreign cars.
16:10The government says the project will boost the economy.
16:13But corruption is rife in Kenya.
16:15And I doubt locals here will see any benefits.
16:20So this is where we're staying tonight.
16:24That's right.
16:25This is going to be our home for the night.
16:27The toilet facilities around the side.
16:30Excuse me one moment.
16:33You don't have to come, Michael.
16:46Oh.
16:46How's the food looking?
16:48Ah, the food is looking delicious.
16:51The goat meat is ready.
16:53Excellent.
16:54This is one of the best bits of goat meat I've ever had.
17:00What can be done to save the Delta and save the people who live here?
17:07The community have started some initiatives.
17:09They are actually resisting.
17:11And already some community members have taken Tarda to court
17:15so that they could block their land from losing their land.
17:20So basically you'll need to shout loudly and say this is ours, this needs to be protected.
17:26And that is what we are doing.
17:29Because the local people are making all these noises,
17:32one day we are going to win and we'll get back our land.
17:39Diwayu is a resourceful campaigner.
17:42And it was good to hear that villagers are fighting back and using the courts.
17:48Oh.
17:50What a day.
17:53It's an absolutely beautiful area.
17:56But I fear that protecting it is not a battle that the little guy is necessarily going to win.
18:13The RSPB has joined the battle to protect this Delta.
18:17But its future is by no means clear.
18:23Next day we took a plane back out towards the coast, flying over the Tana Delta.
18:28This whole area is absolutely gorgeous.
18:32Large and beautiful, spectacular.
18:34And at the moment, still pristine.
18:38But for how much longer?
18:43We went back to the Indian Ocean.
18:46I'm going to bang that and then head on the coast.
18:52At the far north of Kenya's Indian Ocean coast is an island called Kiwayu, just next to the border with
18:59Somalia.
19:03Around Kiwayu Island, the azure waters team with marine life.
19:14Few tourists venture up here, and the long white sandy beaches are virtually deserted.
19:22It's a remote and beautiful corner of the Indian Ocean.
19:28But the community here is linked to the rest of the planet in a surprising way.
19:37We've met up with some villagers and we're walking across the island with them,
19:41because the ladies here are about to do a bit of beachcombing.
19:49Because when you get down onto the beach, you see that it's not quite the perfect paradise.
19:56You can see the high tide mark just here, all the way along the beach.
20:01And you can see as well, there's a fair bit of rubbish on this beach.
20:06Almost all of it plastic.
20:08Just a few years ago, tropical beaches like this really were pristine and untouched.
20:14But thanks to our global addiction to plastic,
20:17beaches and seas are now polluted by millions of tons of plastic waste
20:21that swirls around our oceans and washes up onto the sand.
20:25It's a catastrophe for the Indian Ocean and the planet,
20:28and nobody's really doing anything about it.
20:31What is it? Some sort of storage bottle?
20:34Some sort of, yeah, look.
20:39This will not biodegrade.
20:42Right, this will photodegrade.
20:44So the sun and the movement of the waves and the sand, et cetera, and the wind,
20:47this will break this down into smaller pieces and it will turn this one heavy plastic container
20:53into a million smaller fragments of plastic.
20:58A generation ago, this plastic just wasn't here.
21:03It's now one of the most serious pollution threats to the Indian Ocean.
21:08But the women of Kiwaiu have hit on a way to help clean up at least some of this tidal
21:12wave of rubbish,
21:13at the same time as earning a living.
21:21Bihawa, I know you're looking for something specific or one thing in particular, but can you explain to us what
21:27it is and why?
21:31We come to clean the beach and clear up the plastic.
21:35The most important thing for us is to collect flip-flops because we use them for our business.
21:48Villagers on the island collect flip-flops from the beach and turn them into ornaments and souvenirs to sell to
21:53tourists.
21:53And there's no shortage of raw materials.
21:57So I suppose now then what we need to do is gather up as many flip-flops as possible.
22:04Come on Mike, get those Maasai eyes scanning the beach.
22:12Flip-flop!
22:17They are everywhere, look!
22:21Look at this!
22:27Come on Mike!
22:29Put your back into it son!
22:32Because the Brit here is steaming ahead.
22:36Look at this!
22:39This is from a walk of 100-150 meters.
22:44It's just incredible!
22:49Not bad!
22:51What's he got? Look!
22:57Is that good?
22:59How do you want me to carry it?
23:01These ladies know how to work the men, don't they?
23:12We know how to make something out of flip-flops, but we'd like help to get rid of the other
23:16plastics.
23:16If anyone knows what we can do with this plastic, we'd like their help.
23:21I think in reality, Bihawad, there isn't really anybody who knows what to do with all the plastic that we've
23:30put into the sea and that is washing up on our beaches.
23:33What you're talking about in relation to your beach is a question that I think needs to be asked on
23:41a global level.
23:45So I think we should head back and see what you do with these.
23:54Look at this!
23:55This is our shop.
23:56Oh my goodness!
23:57Look at this!
24:02Everything here...
24:03This is made...
24:05This is all made from flip-flops!
24:09Look at this!
24:13The villagers make more than just pocket money from recycling this ocean waste.
24:18Most of their handiwork is shipped to Nairobi for sale and exported to order.
24:23You can even buy them on the internet!
24:26How has life changed for people in the village since you started creating flip-flop products?
24:34Some people didn't have houses, but now they have them.
24:37Some people didn't have livestock, but now they do.
24:42We've bought a lot of things.
24:44Some of us couldn't send our children to school, but now we can educate them.
24:48That's the thing I put first.
24:57The income from their cottage industry is now doubly important for this community.
25:02The ladies were just telling me that the guys here have had problems with the Somali pirates in recent years.
25:11And while they've been out at sea, in these sort of boats, pirates have harassed them, taken things from them.
25:21And even forced them to carry them up the coast to Somalia.
25:27And the women were saying that some of the men are frightened of going to sea.
25:33So while the men can't really go to sea, it's the women who are making an income from turning washed
25:41-up flip-flops into toys and art.
25:48It's a very 21st century story really, isn't it?
26:00Just a few weeks later, the horror of Somali piracy struck the island itself, when British visitor David Teba was
26:08shot dead on Kiwaiyu.
26:09And his wife Judith was kidnapped by a Somali gang and taken back across the border.
26:18Most of Somalia is controlled by warlords and Islamic militants linked to Al-Qaeda.
26:23I took a flight to Mogadishu, the capital.
26:27It's not a journey I undertook lightly. Mogadishu is described as the most dangerous city on Earth.
26:34But since almost the start of my journey in South Africa, and even in the paradise islands of the Seychelles,
26:40piracy had been a recurring issue on my Indian Ocean travels.
26:45Somalia is the source of the piracy epidemic affecting millions of people and the whole of the Western Indian Ocean.
26:51It was somewhere I felt I had to visit.
26:54Welcome to Mogadishu.
27:07I was greeted by chaos the minute I stepped off the plane.
27:11It's par for the course here.
27:13Par for the course?
27:19The airport is under the control of an African peacekeeping force called AMISOM,
27:24who are fighting the Islamic militants in Somalia.
27:28The airport's within AMISOM's military base, which was the safest place for me to stay.
27:37They don't want to show inside the camp because that could provide the enemy with the location of targets.
27:48So we'll stop now and pick up later.
28:00Conflict has raged in Somalia for decades.
28:03In the 1970s and 80s it was ruled by a dictator.
28:07In 1991 there was a civil war.
28:10Government collapsed.
28:11Then warlords took over and battled endlessly.
28:14There's since been famine.
28:16Foreign powers have tried to intervene.
28:19But all previous attempts to save the country have failed.
28:23At least one million people have died.
28:25And amid the constant instability and anarchy, piracy has flourished.
28:31The reason I really wanted to come here is because the violence and chaos ripples out from this place
28:37to affect the whole of the Horn of Africa and the entire Western Indian Ocean.
28:47In this, perhaps the poorest and most violent place on earth,
28:51the job of the AMISOM peacekeeping force is to try to stabilise Somalia.
28:58We are ready to go. We are ready to go over.
29:01The soldiers are from Uganda and Burundi.
29:05They're backed by the United Nations and indirectly by some money from the West.
29:10Leaving their base meant travelling in armoured personnel carriers.
29:15On the streets of Mogadishu, the soldiers faced the constant threat of attack.
29:20From anything from car bombs to shoulder launch rockets or suicide bombers.
29:26I was travelling with Ugandan Lieutenant Colonel Paddy Nkunda.
29:37All the buildings look as though they've got bullet marks.
29:40Well, that's the truth of the matter.
29:43Fighting has been to every corner of this city.
29:47We're talking about 20 years of statelessness.
29:51No government, people have guns, shooting about.
29:55No government, people have guns.
29:56So, the result is what you see.
30:03Since 2007, AMISOM has been locked in a bitter struggle with Al-Shabaab.
30:08A heavily armed, exceptionally violent Somali Islamic group,
30:12which has close ties with Al-Qaeda and takes a cut from local piracy.
30:18Al-Shabaab controls a large area of the country, terrorising its own people.
30:23And until just a few weeks before my visit, it held most of Mogadishu.
30:28So, this is now the front line.
30:32AMISOM aren't just peacekeeping security guards.
30:35I was being taken to the front line of a full-scale war.
30:39We show you the positions that belong to the Al-Shabaab just five days ago.
30:44And are you still taking fire at this position?
30:48Are the soldiers still getting shot at?
30:50Yeah, because you see, for example, those are firing positions.
30:53Those are gun points.
30:56It was reported that scores of AMISOM soldiers died in the fight for this position just days previously.
31:07So, obviously, we're safe behind these barriers. Is it OK? I mean, we can look out.
31:14So, what are we looking out onto here?
31:16That is the Dainley Trading Centre.
31:18Yes. It's our next target.
31:20In there, the Al-Shabaab.
31:24You see that building with the mast?
31:26And that's what, an Al-Shabaab stronghold?
31:28Yeah.
31:29Yeah.
31:30This road was actually constructed by the Al-Shabaab.
31:33In order to join Dainley with Bakara market, they had to build this.
31:37Jeez.
31:42Oh, they have seen a vehicle of the Al-Shabaab.
31:44When they see a car, they shoot.
31:47AMISOM's plan was to spread out from this position and retake Somalia.
31:51So, this is an absolutely key point, then.
31:53Very key, indeed, because the moment we get that town, I think then the next stage is to move out
32:00into the entire country.
32:03This is too open, guys.
32:05This is too open?
32:06This is too open for you, so take off your head from the firing line, eh?
32:11Paddy wanted us to move on before Al-Shabaab retaliated with gunfire or artillery.
32:16It's really important we all understand that this isn't just the front line for the Burundian and Ugandan soldiers who
32:22are fighting here.
32:23This is the front line in the war on piracy as well.
32:32Al-Shabaab is linking itself more and more closely to Al-Qaeda.
32:36AMISOM and Western intelligence agencies believe that Somalia is becoming a training ground for international terrorism.
32:44Paddy took me to the National Stadium to see where, until recently, Al-Shabaab had their base.
32:50Right.
32:52I can't.
32:56This would ideally be a symbol of nationhood.
33:01Yes.
33:02Now, if you want to see how destroyed this country is, you come to some of these symbols.
33:07Yeah.
33:13This is the Emirates.
33:16The Emirates.
33:16Or the, yeah.
33:18Orchidish.
33:19Orchidish.
33:19Orchidish.
33:20Orchidish.
33:24Al-Shabaab did use the stadium for its own sinister public events.
33:31They actually used to execute people here in the stadium.
33:36Al-Shabaab would, they would bury people in the ground up to their neck and then they would stone people
33:42to death.
33:43That's what used to happen here.
33:54It was time to head back to the relative safety of the Amazon base for the night.
33:58This is such a bizarre place.
34:01And I have to have...
34:05...blast boxes of them, I think they're called.
34:07It's underwear that's got, um...
34:11...uh, a special panel in it.
34:12This yellow bit here, well it won't stop a bullet but it will stop small bits of shrapnel from wiping
34:20out my vital parts.
34:23We're only allowed to film in here, not outside in the camp for security reasons.
34:27A few nights ago an intruder got over the wall of the base and was shot dead.
34:33A couple of nights ago there was another intruder, he's since confessed to being a member of the Al-Shabaab
34:38group.
34:38He had a GPS locator with him which he was supposed to use to identify targets here.
34:44It's all incredibly nerve-wracking.
35:00Next day we hit the streets of Mogadishu again.
35:07Somalia's enormous problems don't end with piracy, chronic instability and conflict.
35:16When I visited, the country was suffering the worst drought in 60 years.
35:21And a famine that affected millions of people.
35:28Tens of thousands of refugees have flooded into Mogadishu.
35:33And we're now going to a feeding centre where many of them have been looked after.
35:50Even here at the feeding centre we needed protection and weren't safe.
35:54But in this country nobody is.
36:01There are dozens of centres like this across the city.
36:04Offering a simple but life-saving meal to Somalis who have lost everything.
36:12There will be families here who have walked for miles across the burning desert to get here.
36:17Some of them will have lost family members along the way.
36:23And to be honest these are the lucky ones as well.
36:25These are the fittest and the strongest.
36:28The weakest just don't make it.
36:34One of the reasons many people have fled to Mogadishu in search of food
36:37is that Al-Shabaab have prevented foreign aid agencies from working elsewhere in the country.
36:43In regions destroyed by drought.
36:46The militants have helped to turn the drought into a famine.
36:52Musa Usable and his family walked much of the 250 miles to get here from the southern city of Kismayo.
37:01Why did you want to come here to Mogadishu? Was it because of the lack of food in the south?
37:27Can you imagine how bad life is in the rest of this country for this place to be a paradise
37:33for people coming out?
37:38Outside Mogadishu, Al-Shabaab has control.
37:41The West worries about them training terrorists, yet Amesom is under-resourced and underfunded.
37:48Amesom had made some significant gains against Al-Shabaab just before my visit,
37:53but they're a relatively small force battling a fanatical enemy who are able to hide among the local population.
38:05I'm just telling the driver to be very careful and follow the right roads,
38:10otherwise the roads can be misleading. You may find yourself in an Al-Shabaab territory.
38:16Seriously? Yeah.
38:21Paddy took me to the edge of Amesom's area of control in the northwest of the city.
38:26Here too, the Ugandans were locked in tough urban warfare against Al-Shabaab.
38:35F**k, what was that? What's going on?
38:38We need to find out what it was.
38:39Yeah.
38:45My goodness.
38:47Now we emerge and we're in somebody's back garden.
38:50In this close quarters fighting, gains and losses are made one street and sometimes one garden at a time.
38:58That side of the wall, you have Al-Shabaab.
39:03Yes, it's on the left, left.
39:12Are they trying, preparing to launch an attack?
39:14They're running.
39:15They're running?
39:16Yeah, we're crossing the road.
39:17Are they holding guns?
39:18Yeah.
39:18Yes.
39:20They are coming to attack.
39:24How does he know it's Al-Shabaab?
39:27That side, that side, that's Al-Shabaab now.
39:29That side.
39:30The whole of that side.
39:31Could be where we start.
39:32Everybody on that side.
39:33Absolutely.
39:35I don't know.
39:36The world is not safe if Somalia is not stable.
39:40It is just as simple as that.
39:42And it doesn't matter in which capital of the world you are, because Al-Qaeda can reach there.
39:47So you need to hit them where they are training from, and this is Somalia.
39:51What do you need to do the job?
39:53Well, a lot of things.
39:54I mean, we have some troops here, just about 9,500 soldiers.
39:58Is that enough?
39:59It's not enough at all.
40:00We think that to take the whole country, we need about 20,000.
40:04We need helicopters.
40:05We don't have even a single helicopter.
40:07Not a single helicopter?
40:08Not even a single one.
40:10We all know piracy is such a huge problem in the Indian Ocean for shipping from around the world.
40:16This is where the piracy comes from.
40:19This is the capital of the country.
40:21That's true.
40:21That's true.
40:22The piracy does not start on the water.
40:24Actually, piracy starts on the land.
40:27This is where they launch from.
40:29This is where they train from.
40:30This is where they have the leadership.
40:34You need to deal with them from the land.
40:40Commander, Adenol, let's go.
40:45Al-Shabaab fighters were gathering on the other side, preparing to attack our position with shoulder-launched rocket-propelled grenades.
40:51So we're being pulled back and we leave the Ugandans here to fight the world's war, it feels like to
40:59me.
41:02The Ugandans are taking heavy casualties as they battle to save Somalia, with completely inadequate backing from the rest of
41:09the world.
41:13They're supposed to be securing an entire country, but they don't even have any helicopters, yet with more support from
41:21the international community, it's just possible the militants could be defeated, that Amesom could be successful, and that Somalis could
41:29have the long-term stability they're so desperate for.
41:35I'm leaving Mogadishu now, but what I take away from my visit here is the absolute conviction that the problem
41:42of piracy in the Indian Ocean has got to be solved here on land, starting in the capital, Mogadishu.
41:49It seems absolutely crazy to me that the world isn't doing more to support Amesom, because peacekeeping can work, it
41:57does work, and it has to work here.
41:59The world needs a secure and stable Somalia.
42:10It's not all chaos and violence in the Horn of Africa.
42:14Just to the north of Somalia is Somaliland and its capital, Hargazia.
42:26There's no need for a flak jacket and helmet here, and it felt great to be welcomed by a familiar
42:32face.
42:32Hello, hello!
42:34How are you?
42:36I'm very well, thank you so much.
42:38I met Fatima when I was here several years ago, and I'm delighted to say Fatima is going to be
42:44showing us around this time, and we're going to spend a little bit of time with her, and see a
42:48little bit more of Somalia.
42:55Tell you what, this is all a bit different to Mogadishu, eh?
42:58But it's a country that doesn't really exist.
43:03Somaliland separated from Somalia in 1991 after civil war.
43:08But the rest of the world refused to recognise the new country and still considers it part of Somalia.
43:15So it's an unrecognised state with no seat at the United Nations.
43:21Checking out the years.
43:27Fantastic!
43:28There we go, look.
43:31International Airport here in Hargazia.
43:33In Somaliland, a country that officially doesn't exist if you ask the rest of the planet.
43:39There you go.
43:54Our first stop was the main market.
43:59So here we are.
44:05As you can see, we don't need armed guards.
44:08We're not afraid that a stray bullet is going to hit it.
44:11We're not afraid of being kidnapped or held hostage.
44:15People are just getting on with life.
44:16Nobody really cares.
44:24Such a difference with benighted, suffering Mogadishu.
44:31Fatima, one thing we've got to clear up is your accent.
44:34Tell us where you've been.
44:36I've spent 42 years in Wales, in Newport, which is my hometown,
44:43and worked in Cardiff where I have many, many of my relatives.
44:51I needed to change a few quick for myself and the film crew.
44:54And it wasn't hard to spot the money changes.
44:58Take your pick.
45:00There you are.
45:01Oh my goodness.
45:03You mean this is how we change money?
45:05Yeah.
45:05On the street.
45:09Look at all this!
45:11Unbelievable!
45:11Unbelievable!
45:18Where are the armed guards here?
45:20There's no armed guards.
45:22Come on Fatima.
45:23Let's go!
45:26We're not going to get very far.
45:28It weighs an absolute tonne.
45:30Maybe that's why they're not worried.
45:32Nobody can carry it.
45:38What looks like a small fortune is really just a few pounds.
45:43Somaliland's largest banknote is equivalent to only five pence.
45:48How much is this worth?
45:50Eight.
45:50Eight dollars.
45:51Okay, so about six pounds.
45:54We need some money for the next few days.
45:56We're going to start with $400.
45:59Let's see if we can carry it.
46:01Is this all ours?
46:03This is your money.
46:07Oh no, just feel free.
46:08Give us more.
46:09That's ours as well.
46:10Okay.
46:11Oh no, just feel free.
46:18Give us more.
46:21That's ours as well.
46:22Okay.
46:26We could walk around with a barrow full of money.
46:29Because Somalilanders have built a safe functioning state with low corruption and low crime.
46:34Unlike in Somalia, there's a justice system here.
46:37Law and order.
46:40Somalilanders are even tackling the scourge of the Indian Ocean.
46:44Piracy.
46:47They've put dozens of pirates behind bars.
46:51I've been given permission to meet some of them in Harkasia prison.
46:55There's a general ban on what's not allowed into the prison.
47:00Everything from guns to rum.
47:11Finally, I had a chance to meet some of the men who are terrorizing ships and sailors around the Indian
47:17Ocean.
47:23So the gentleman here in yellow are the pirates.
47:27Salaamu Alaikum.
47:29Salaamu Alaikum.
47:44Salaamu Alaikum.
47:45He claims the piracy began when Somali fishermen took up arms to defend their part of the Indian Ocean against
47:52large foreign trawlers that were depleting their fish stocks.
48:01I believe that these illegal fishing trawlers should be expelled from the Somali coastline.
48:06If that happened, fishermen would go back to sea and do their normal work.
48:11It sounds to me as though initially Somali started going to sea to drive away the foreign fishing fleets.
48:21But at some point it seems to me that a line was crossed and now piracy seems like it's big
48:28business.
48:29There's a lot of people making vast sums of money from it.
48:33The first decision was to defend our waters.
48:37After that, a lot of money was made and more and more people got involved.
48:43Because of that, it's turned into a business.
48:47There's no problem taking a ship.
48:48It will only be taxed and then released safely.
48:52There's no country in the world that doesn't take taxes.
48:55In a small country with no government, a small militia catches a ship and takes some taxes from them and
49:00then releases them without harming or killing them.
49:03There's nothing wrong with that.
49:16I have no doubt that initially many of the men we now call pirates went to sea because they were
49:20angry about foreigners fishing their waters.
49:23But now, terrible, terrible crimes have been committed.
49:27Hundreds of people right now are being held hostage along the coast of Somalia by pirates.
49:33And vast sums of money are being paid.
49:36Vast sums of money are being made by the pirates.
49:48Okay?
49:51Getting out of the prison, always a tricky one.
49:54Go.
50:04The problems of neighbouring Somalia cast a long shadow over Somaliland.
50:09Because it's considered part of Somalia, it's extremely difficult to attract tourists, aid or economic investment.
50:17Conflict in Somalia is also felt here, because for decades the turmoil has uprooted people across the Horn of Africa.
50:25There's still vast numbers of people moving around in this region trying to flee war or looking for food and
50:31escaping from famine.
50:34And we've come to an area of the capital where, well, it's basically become a refugee camp.
50:45Somaliland might be an unrecognised country, but tens of thousands of people have flooded into Somaliland from Somalia.
50:53Many to avoid getting caught up in the ongoing fighting.
50:57Fatima took me to meet some of the refugees.
51:00We've met up with Mohammed here, who lives in the camp, and he's just going to take us back to
51:05his home.
51:08You've been here three years. What led you to come to the camp? What led you to come to Somaliland?
51:17I either had to join the al-Shabaab fighters or leave the country.
51:24I came all the way here. Sometimes I walked, sometimes I hitchhiked.
51:33At times, I didn't eat for three days.
51:41Mohammed came with his family on the 500-mile trek from his home, just inland from Mogadishu.
51:48Eight of them now share this tiny shack.
51:54So we're in a place that's not a whole lot bigger, frankly, than a many people's garden shed.
52:05Mohammed, this is tough. I can see this is tough for you.
52:10You have a tough time here, a tough life.
52:13But still, this is better than being in Somalia.
52:17Yes.
52:19Yes. We prefer it here.
52:23This is better for us.
52:25If we could go somewhere better than here, we'd love that.
52:30But we don't have that chance.
52:32So we're here.
52:36Life in Somaliland is better for us than Somalia.
52:48Mohammed narrowly avoided being forced to join al-Shabaab, the Islamist militia in Mogadishu.
52:55But in a conflict-ridden region where jobs are scarce, life as a fighter or as a pirate is all
53:01too tempting for many young men.
53:09To counter the lure of the gun, Fatima runs a project which offers help, education and a future to boys
53:15and young men from the refugee camps.
53:21Today, she was taking Mohammed and other young refugee lads on an outing.
53:27We're going to the coast. This is exciting.
53:33What's weird going to the seaside in Somali?
53:36Who is there?
53:37Who is there?
53:38I am taking a…
53:39Badi!
53:40Baddi.
53:41Who is there?
53:42Who is there?
53:44Who is there?
53:45Who is there?
53:47Who is there?
53:51We were heading back to the Indian Ocean.
53:57Fatima, why are you doing this?
53:59Why are you taking them to the coast?
54:00For children who have actually witnessed murders and people being killed in front of them.
54:06So they have no childhood. There's no sense of what childhood should be like.
54:11You're drawing them away from potentially bad things that they could be doing.
54:16Things like piracy, joining gangs or joining militias.
54:21All right, I'll tell you what, put your hands up if you haven't seen the sea before.
54:26Whoa, this is very exciting.
54:28Mohamed, you've never seen the sea? Never? Whoa!
54:35Can you see the ship out there, Mohamed?
54:43We're here. Come on, let's get off.
54:47Let's go to the sea.
54:54My goodness.
54:59It's beautiful.
55:00Beautiful.
55:05I suppose I've become a bit blasé traveling alongside the ocean for a few months now.
55:11We're coming here with them and they're seeing it for the first time.
55:15Because I see it through their eyes.
55:21For the first time, I think it's quite a privilege for me to be here with you.
55:26Feel it!
55:29The Indian Ocean, Mohamed.
55:31Yes.
55:32The Indian Ocean.
55:34Indian Ocean.
55:35In future!
55:59There you go.
56:00A tiny crab.
56:01Look.
56:12Tell us what you think.
56:13It's the first time you've seen the sea.
56:15What thoughts go through your mind?
56:17What are you thinking now?
56:20I'm happy.
56:21I'm very happy.
56:24It's been a good trip.
56:27It's good for my eyes because I haven't left our guesses since we got there.
56:33Well, Mohamed, it's a real privilege for us to have been allowed and able to accompany
56:41you on your first visit to the ocean.
56:51This is a major milestone for me because this is the end of my journey of Africa's Indian
56:59Ocean coast.
57:01I'm halfway around the Indian Ocean now.
57:05I've still got a long, long way to go.
57:07A lot to see, a lot to do, and many more people to meet.
57:12I've got time for a paddle first.
57:15Come on, get back in the sea.
57:17Okay.
57:25It's warm.
57:27It's beautiful.
57:28It's the Indian Ocean.
57:31It's warm.
57:35It's warm.
57:40It's warm.
57:52It's warm.
57:54I'm the oldies.
57:55I go fishing the old fashioned way.
57:59Yay!
58:01I caught a tuna in the Indian Ocean, sustainably.
58:11Mary Beard goes behind closed doors in the final part of Meet the Romans tonight on BBC HD at 10.
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