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Somalia

Understanding Somalia’s Destruction

A State’s Unmaking

In the 1960s Somalia was a democratic pacesetter in Africa, and by the 1990s it was a byword for chaos and destruction. Inadequate institutions, territorial disputes, Cold War dynamics and an increasingly authoritarian leader all played their part in the country’s decline.

Bob Dylan Helped Me Survive Pirate Captivity

Bob Dylan Helped Me Survive Pirate Captivity

I was spending hours alone with my thoughts, ever since a gang of pirates kidnapped me from a car outside the dusty crossroads town of Galkacyo, in central Somalia, during a reporting trip in 2012. The mystery of this song became an obsession.

The Peril of War Correspondence

The Peril of War Correspondence

If and when freedom arrives, the moment surprises you, and you find yourself in the world again holding more emotion than you know how to express.