title: Mogadishu

text: The founding ethnicity of Mogadishu and its subsequent sultanate has been a topic of intrigue in Somali Studies. Ioan Lewis and Enrico Cerulli believed that the city was founded and ruled by a council of Arab and Persian families. However, the reference I.M Lewis and Cerulli received traces back to one 19th century text called the Kitab Al-Zunuj, which has been discredited by modern scholars as unreliable and unhistorical. More importantly, it contradicts oral, ancient written sources and archeological evidence on the pre-existing civilizations and communities that flourished on the Somali coast, and to which were the forefathers of Mogadishu and other coastal cities. Thus, the Persian and Arab founding "myths" are regarded as an outdated false colonialist reflection on Africans ability to create their own sophisticated states. It has now been widely accepted that there were already communities on the Somali coast with local African leadership, to whom the Arab and Persian families had to ask for permission to settle in their cities. It also seems the local Africans retained their political and numerical superiority on the coast while the Muslim immigrants would go through an assimilation process by adopting the local language and culture.


title: Mogadishu

text: Mogadishu along with Zeila and other Somali coastal cities was founded upon an indigenous network involving hinterland trade and that happened even before significant Arab migrations or trade with the Somali coast. That goes back approximately four thousand years and are supported by archaeological and textual evidences.


title: Mogadishu

text: This is corroborated by the first century AD Greek document the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, detailing multiple prosperous port cities in ancient Somalia, as well as the identification of ancient Sarapion with the city that would later be known as Mogadishu. When Ibn Battuta visited the Sultanate in the 14th century, he identified the Sultan as being of Barbara origin, an ancient term to describe the ancestors of the Somali people. According to Ross E. Dunn neither Mogadishu, or any other city on the coast could be considered alien enclaves of Arabs or Persians, but were in-fact African towns.


title: Mogadishu

text: Yaqut al-Hamawi, a Muslim medieval geographer in the year 1220 describes Mogadishu as the most prominent town on the coast. Yaqut also mentioned Mogadishu as being a town inhabited by Berbers, described as "dark-skinned" and considered ancestors of modern Somalis. By the thirteenth century, Ibn Sa'id described Mogadishu, Merca and Barawa located in the Benadir coast had become Islamic and commercial centers in the Indian Ocean. He said the local people in the Benadir coast and the interior were predominantly inhabited by Somalis with a minority of Arab, Persian and Indian merchants living in the coastal towns. Ibn al-Mujawir mentions the Banu Majid who fled the Mundhiriya region in Yemen in the year 1159 and settled in Mogadishu and also traders from the port towns of Abyan and Haram.


title: Mogadishu

text: Mogadishu is traditionally inhabited by four clans. Ajurans(Hawiye),Abgaal(Hawiye),Majerteen(Darood)and the reer xamar clan groupings (Somali: afarta reer xamar). These are the Moorshe, Iskashato, DhabarWeyne, and the Bandawow. And with Moorshe being regarded as the oldest group in Mogadishu and is considered to be a sub-clan of Ajuran who established one of the most powerful medieval kingdoms in Africa called Ajuran Sultanate. The Gibil Madow (Dark Skins) faction of the Benadiri are said to hail from Somali clan groups from the interior and make up the majority of Benadiris with a small minority being Gibil Cads (Light Skins) which descend from Muslim immigrants.


title: Mogadishu

text: The Mogadishu Sultanate was a medieval Somali sultanate centered in southern Somalia. It rose as one of the pre-eminent powers in the Horn of Africa under the rule of Fakhr ad-Din before becoming part of the expanding Ajuran Empire in the 13th century. The Mogadishu Sultanate maintained a vast trading network, dominated the regional gold trade, minted its own currency, and left an extensive architectural legacy in present-day southern Somalia. A local city-state which much influence over the hinterland neighboring coastal towns.


title: Mogadishu

text: For many years Mogadishu functioned as the pre-eminent city in the ("Bilad al Barbar" – "Land of the Berbers"), as medieval Arabic-speakers named the Somali coast. Following his visit to the city, the 12th-century Syrian historian Yaqut al-Hamawi (a former slave of Greek origin) wrote a global history of many places he visited Mogadishu and called it the richest and most powerful city in the region and was an Islamic center across the Indian Ocean.


title: Mogadishu

text: In the early 13th century, Mogadishu along with other coastal and interior Somali cities in southern Somalia and eastern Abyissina came under the Ajuran Sultanate control and experienced another Golden Age. By the 1500s, Mogadishu was no longer a vassal state and became a full-fledged Ajuran city. An Ajuran family, Mudaffar, established a dynasty in the city, thus combining two entities together for the next 350 years, the fortunes of the urban cities in the interior and coast became the fortunes of the other.


title: Mogadishu

text: During his travels, Ibn Sa'id al-Maghribi (1213–1286) noted that Mogadishu city had already become the leading Islamic center in the region. By the time of the Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta's appearance on the Somali coast in 1331, the city was at the zenith of its prosperity. He described Mogadishu as "an exceedingly large city" with many rich merchants, which was famous for its high quality fabric that it exported to Egypt, among other places. He also describes the hospitality of the people of Mogadishu and how locals would put travelers up in their home to help the local economy. Battuta added that the city was ruled by a Somali Sultan, Abu Bakr ibn Shaikh 'Umar, He noted that Sultan Abu Bakr had dark skin complexion and spoke in his native tongue (Somali) but was also fluent in Arabic. The Sultan also had a retinue of wazirs (ministers), legal experts, commanders, royal eunuchs, and other officials at his beck and call. Ibn Khaldun (1332 to 1406) noted in his book that Mogadishu was a massive metropolis. He also claimed that the city was a very populous with many wealthy merchants.


title: Mogadishu

text: This period gave birth to notable figures like Abd al-Aziz of Mogadishu who was described as the governor and island chief of Maldives by Ibn Battuta After him is named the Abdul-Aziz Mosque in Mogadishu which has remained there for centuries.


title: Mogadishu

text: The island's appellation "Madagascar" is not of local origin but rather was popularized in the Middle Ages by Europeans. The name "Madageiscar" was first recorded in the memoirs of 13th-century Venetian explorer Marco Polo as a corrupted transliteration of the name Mogadishu, the famous port with which Polo had confused the island.


title: Mogadishu

text: Vasco Da Gama, who passed by Mogadishu in the 15th century, noted that it was a large city with houses of four or five storeys high and big palaces in its centre and many mosques with cylindrical minarets. In the 16th century, Duarte Barbosa noted that many ships from the Kingdom of Cambaya sailed to Mogadishu with cloths and spices for which they in return received gold, wax and ivory. Barbosa also highlighted the abundance of meat, wheat, barley, horses, and fruit on the coastal markets, which generated enormous wealth for the merchants. Mogadishu, the center of a thriving weaving industry known as "toob benadir" (specialized for the markets in Egypt and Syria), together with Merca and Barawa also served as transit stops for Swahili merchants from Mombasa and Malindi and for the gold trade from Kilwa. Jewish merchants from the Hormuz also brought their Indian textile and fruit to the Somali coast in exchange for grain and wood.


title: Mogadishu

text: The Portuguese Empire was unsuccessful in conquering Mogadishu permanently, despite the city being destroyed by a powerful naval Portuguese commander called João de Sepúvelda. After the Battle of Benadir, a peace treaty was signed.


title: Mogadishu

text: According to the 16th-century explorer, Leo Africanus indicates that the native inhabitants of the Mogadishu polity were of the same origins as the denizens of the northern people of Zeila the capital of Adal Sultanate. They were generally tall with an olive skin complexion, with some being darker. They would wear traditional rich white silk wrapped around their bodies and have Islamic turbans and coastal people would only wear sarongs, and wrote Arabic as a lingua franca. Their weaponry consisted of traditional Somali weapons such as swords, daggers, spears, battle axe, and bows, although they received assistance from its close ally the Ottoman Empire and with the import of firearms such as muskets and cannons. Most were Muslims, although a few adhered to heathen bedouin tradition; there were also a number of Abyssinian Christians further inland. Mogadishu itself was a wealthy, and well-built city-state, which maintained commercial trade with kingdoms across the world. The metropolis city was surrounded by walled stone fortifications.


title: Mogadishu

text: Ajuran Sultanate collapsed in the 17th century due to heavy taxing against their subjects which opened a rebellion. The ex-subjects became a new wave of Somali immigrants, the Abgaal, moved both into Shabelle basin and into Mogadishu, and the city's mudaffar dynasty collapsed. A new political elite led by Abgaal Yaquub imams, with ties to the new leaders in the interior, moved into Shingaani quarter of the city. Remnants of the Ajuran lived in the other key-quarters Xamarweyne. Ajuran merchants began to look for new linkages and regional trade opportunities since the Abgaal had commandeered the existing trading networks.


title: Mogadishu

text: By the 17th century, the Hiraab Imamate was a powerful kingdom that ruled large parts of southern and central Somalia. It successfully revolted against the Ajuran Sultanate and established an independent rule for at least two centuries from the seventeen hundreds and onwards.


title: Mogadishu

text: The alliance involved the army leaders and advisors of the Habar Gidir and Duduble, a Fiqhi/Qadi of Sheekhaal, and the Imam was reserved for the Abgaal who is believed to have been the first born. Once established, the Imamate ruled the territories from the Shabeelle valley, the Benadir province, the Mareeg area all the way to the arid lands of Mudug, which included the ancient port of Hobyo.


title: Mogadishu

text: Hobyo served as a prosperous commercial center for the Imamate while Mogadishu served as the political center where the ruling dynasty resided. The agricultural centres of El Dher and Harardhere included the production of sorghum and beans, supplementing with herds of camels, cattle, goats and sheep. Livestock, hides and skin, whilst the aromatic woods and raisins were the primary exports as rice, other foodstuffs and clothes were imported. Merchants looking for exotic goods came to the Imamate to buy textiles, precious metals and pearls. The commercial goods harvested along the Shabelle river were brought to Mogadishu for trade. The increasing importance and rapid settlement of more southernly cities such as Mogadishu boosted prosperity, as more ships made their way down the Somali coast to trade and replenish their supplies.


title: Mogadishu

text: By the late 19th century, the Imamate began to decline due to internal problems, the Imamate also faced challenges from Imperialist kingdoms, the Zanzibari Sultan from the coast and Geledi Sultanate, and Hobyo Sultanate from the interior from both directions.


title: Mogadishu

text: The Sultanate of Geledi and the Omani Empire vied over who would be the superior power on the Benadir Coast, with Sultan Yusuf Mahamud ultimately being the dominant force with the Omanis having a nominal presence and Said bin Sultan even paying tribute to him in order to keep Omani representatives in Mogadishu. Mogadishu under Abgaal control had been in a period of decline and disarray near the end of the Hiraab Imamate. Following a struggle between the two leading figures of each respective quarter (Shingani and Hamarweyn) Sultan Yusuf marched into the city with an 8,000 strong army and ruled in favour of the Shingani leader, with the loser fleeing the city. Yusuf would nominate a relative of the deposed chief to lead the Hamarweyn quarter ending the dispute. Sultan Yusuf is even referred to as the Governor of Mogadishu in some sources, highlighting the power he exerted over the city.


title: Mogadishu

text: Despite the Hiraab political decline, trade with Geledi Sultanate flourished during Geledi Sultan Ahmed Yusuf's reign. British explorer John Kirk visited the region in 1873 and noted a variety of things. Roughly 20 large dhows were docked in both Mogadishu and Merka filled with grain produced from the farms of the Geledi in the interior. Kirk met the Hiraab Imam Mahmood who reigned over Mogadishu. The Shabelle river itself was referred to as the 'Geledi river' by Kirk, perhaps in respect of the volume of produce that the Sultanate output. In Barawa there was little grain instead a large quantity of ivory and skins which had already been loaded onto ships destined for Zanzibar.


title: Mogadishu

text: The Geledi Sultans were at the height of their power. They dominated the East African ivory trade, and also held sway over the Jubba and Shebelle valleys in the hinterland. The Omani Sultans' authority in Mogadishu, however, was largely nominal (existing by name only). When Imam Azzan bin Qais of Oman sought to build a fort in the city, he was thus obligated to request permission from Sultan Ahmed Yusuf the real power broker who in turn convinced the Hiraab Imam to acquiesce to the decision. Omani and later Zanzibari officials were mere representatives of the Sultan to collect customs and needed the fort for their own security rather than control of the city. This Fort of Garessa was eventually constructed in 1870. The Sultan of Zanzibar later leased and then sold the infrastructure that he had built to the Italians, but not the land itself, which was Somali owned.


title: Mogadishu

text: In 1905, Italy made Mogadishu the capital of the newly established Italian Somaliland. The Italians subsequently referred to the city as "Mogadiscio". After World War I, the surrounding territory came under Italian control with some resistance.


title: Mogadishu

text: Thousands of Italians, Sicilians, and other people from the Italian empire began to settle in Mogadishu and founded small manufacturing companies across Somalia. They also developed some agricultural areas in the south near the capital, such as Janale and the "Villaggio duca degli Abruzzi" (present-day Jowhar). In the 1930s, new buildings and avenues were built. A narrow-gauge railway was laid from Mogadishu to Jowhar. An asphalted road, the "Strada Imperiale", was also constructed and intended to link Mogadishu to Addis Ababa.


title: Mogadishu

text: In 1940, the Italo-Somali population numbered 22,000, accounting for over 44% of the city's population of 50,000 residents. Mogadishu remained the capital of Italian Somaliland throughout the latter polity's existence. In World War II it was captured by British forces in February 1941.


title: Mogadishu

text: After World War II Mogadishu was made the capital of the Trust Territory of Somaliland, an Italian administered fiduciary political entity under the ONU mandate, for ten years (1950–1960).


title: Mogadishu

text: British Somaliland became independent on 26 June 1960 as the State of Somaliland, and the Trust Territory of Somalia (the former Italian Somaliland) followed suit five days later. On 1 July 1960, the two territories united to form the Somali Republic, with Mogadishu serving as the nation's capital. A government was formed by Abdullahi Issa and other members of the trusteeship and protectorate governments, with Haji Bashir Ismail Yusuf as President of the Somali National Assembly, Aden Abdullah Osman Daar as President of the Somali Republic, and Abdirashid Ali Shermarke as Prime Minister (later to become president from 1967 to 1969). On 20 July 1961 and through a popular referendum, the people of Somalia ratified a new constitution, which was first drafted in 1960. In 1967, Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal became Prime Minister, a position to which he was appointed by Shermarke.


title: Mogadishu

text: On 15 October 1969, while paying a visit to the northern town of Las Anod, Somalia's then President Abdirashid Ali Shermarke was assassinated by one of his own bodyguards. His assassination was quickly followed by a military coup d'état on 21 October 1969 (the day after his funeral), in which the Somali Army seized power without encountering armed opposition — essentially a bloodless takeover. The putsch was spearheaded by Major General Mohamed Siad Barre, who at the time commanded the army.


title: Mogadishu

text: Alongside Barre, the Supreme Revolutionary Council (SRC) that assumed power after President Sharmarke's assassination was led by Lieutenant Colonel Salaad Gabeyre Kediye and Chief of Police Jama Ali Korshel. Kediye officially held the title of "Father of the Revolution," and Barre shortly afterwards became the head of the SRC. The SRC subsequently renamed the country the Somali Democratic Republic, arrested members of the former civilian government, banned political parties, dissolved the parliament and the Supreme Court, and suspended the constitution.


title: Mogadishu

text: The revolutionary army established large-scale public works programmes, including the Mogadishu Stadium. In addition to a nationalization programme of industry and land, the Mogadishu-based new regime's foreign policy placed an emphasis on Somalia's traditional and religious links with the Arab world, eventually joining the Arab League in 1974.


title: Mogadishu

text: After fallout from the unsuccessful Ogaden campaign of the late 1970s, the Barre administration began arresting government and military officials under suspicion of participation in the 1978 coup d'état attempt. Most of the people who had allegedly helped plot the putsch were summarily executed. However, several officials escaped abroad and started to form dissident groups dedicated to ousting Barre's regime by force.


title: Mogadishu

text: By the late 1980s, Barre's regime had become increasingly unpopular. The authorities became ever more totalitarian, and resistance movements, encouraged by Ethiopia's communist Derg administration, sprang up across the country. This led in 1991 to the outbreak of the civil war, the toppling of Barre's government, and the disbandment of the Somali National Army. Many of the opposition groups began competing for influence in the power vacuum that followed the ouster of Barre's regime. Armed factions led by United Somali Congress commanders General Mohamed Farah Aidid and Ali Mahdi Mohamed, in particular, clashed as each sought to exert authority over the capital.


title: Mogadishu

text: UN Security Council Resolution 733 and UN Security Council Resolution 746 led to the creation of UNOSOM I, the first stabilization mission in Somalia after the dissolution of the central government. United Nations Security Council Resolution 794 was unanimously passed on 3 December 1992, which approved a coalition of United Nations peacekeepers led by the United States. Forming the Unified Task Force (UNITAF), the alliance was tasked with assuring security until humanitarian efforts were transferred to the UN. Landing in 1993, the UN peacekeeping coalition started the two-year United Nations Operation in Somalia II (UNOSOM II) primarily in the south.


title: Mogadishu

text: Some of the militias that were then competing for power interpreted the UN troops' presence as a threat to their hegemony. Consequently, several gun battles took place in Mogadishu between local gunmen and peacekeepers. Among these was the Battle of Mogadishu of 1993, a US apprehension of two high-ranking lieutenants of faction leader Aidid. The UN soldiers withdrew altogether from the country on 3 March 1995, having incurred more significant casualties.


title: Mogadishu

text: In 2006, the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), an Islamist organization, assumed control of much of the southern part of the country and imposed sharia law. The new Transitional Federal Government (TFG), established two years earlier, sought to re-establish its authority. With the assistance of Ethiopian troops, AMISOM peacekeepers and air support by the United States, it drove out the rival ICU and solidified its rule. On 8 January 2007, as the Battle of Ras Kamboni, raged, TFG President and founder Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, a former colonel in the Somali Army, entered Mogadishu for the first time since being elected to office. The government then relocated to Villa Somalia in Mogadishu from its interim location in Baidoa, marking the first time since the fall of the Barre regime in 1991 that the federal government controlled most of the country.


title: Mogadishu

text: Following this defeat, the Islamic Courts Union splintered into factions. Some of the more radical elements, including jihadist group al-Shabaab, regrouped to continue their insurgency against the TFG and oppose the Ethiopian military's presence in Somalia. Throughout 2007 and 2008, al-Shabaab scored military victories, seizing control of key towns and ports in both central and southern Somalia. At the end of 2008, the group had captured Baidoa but not Mogadishu. By January 2009, al-Shabaab and other militias had managed to force the Ethiopian troops to retreat, leaving behind an under-equipped African Union peacekeeping force to assist the Transitional Federal Government's troops.


title: Mogadishu

text: Between 31 May and 9 June 2008, representatives of Somalia's federal government and the moderate Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) group of Islamist rebels participated in peace talks in Djibouti brokered by the UN. The conference ended with a signed agreement calling for the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops in exchange for the cessation of armed confrontation. Parliament was subsequently expanded to 550 seats to accommodate ARS members, which then elected a new president. With the help of a small team of African Union troops, the coalition government also began a counteroffensive in February 2009 to retake control of the southern half of the country. To solidify its control of southern Somalia, the TFG formed an alliance with the Islamic Courts Union, other members of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia, and Ahlu Sunna Waljama'a, a moderate Sufi militia.


title: Mogadishu

text: In November 2010, a new technocratic government was elected to office, which enacted numerous reforms, especially in the security sector. By August 2011, the new administration and its AMISOM allies had managed to capture all of Mogadishu from the Al-Shabaab militants. Mogadishu has subsequently experienced a period of intense reconstruction spearheaded by the Somali diaspora, the municipal authorities, and Turkey, a historic ally of Somalia.


title: Mogadishu

text: In August 2011, militant group al Shabaab made a strategic withdrawal from Mogadishu to return to hit-and-run tactics. Mayor Mohamed Nur recognized the opportunity as critical to stabilizing and rebuilding the city. Working closely with the UN, USAID, and DRC, Nur's administration started large-scale rehabilitation of roads and general infrastructure, with residents cooperating with the civil and police authorities to tighten up on security. Nur recognized the opportunity to transform Mogadishu although resources were limited. Working with urban strategist Mitchell Sipus, the Benadir government sought to design and deploy a data-driven approach to post-war reconstruction.


title: Mogadishu

text: With the passing of a new Constitution in 2012 and the subsequent election of an inaugural President in the new Federal Government, the mayorship continued to oversee Mogadishu's ongoing post-conflict reconstruction. Building off the initial pilot, the Benadir administration launched a citywide street naming, house numbering and postal codes project. Officially called the House Numbering and Post Code System, it is a joint initiative of the municipal authorities and Somali business community representatives. According to Nur, the initiative also aims to help the authorities firm up on security and resolve housing ownership disputes. , there are postal codes for 156 localities and sub-localities, including the Mogadishu metropolitan area.


title: Mogadishu

text: Mogadishu is situated on the Indian Ocean coast of the Horn of Africa of Northeast Africa, in the Banaadir administrative region ("gobol") in southeastern Somalia. The region itself is coextensive with the city and is much smaller than the historical province of Benadir. The city is administratively divided into eighteen districts of Abdiaziz, Bondhere, Daynile, Dharkenley, Hamar-Jajab, Hamar-Weyne, Heliwa, Hodan, Howl-Wadag, Karan, Shangani, Shibis, Waberi, Wadajir, Wardhigley and Yaqshid. Features of the city include the Hamarwein old town, the Bakaara Market, and Gezira Beach. The sandy beaches of Mogadishu have vibrant coral reefs, and are prime real estate for the first tourist resorts in many years.


title: Mogadishu

text: The Shebelle River ("Webiga Shabelle") rises in central Ethiopia and comes within of the Indian Ocean near Mogadishu before turning southwestward. Usually dry during February and March, the river provides water essential for the cultivation of sugarcane, cotton, and bananas.


title: Mogadishu

text: For a city situated so near the equator, Mogadishu has a dry climate. It is classified as hot and semi-arid (Köppen climate classification ""BSh""), as with much of southeastern Somalia. By contrast, towns in northern Somalia generally have a hot arid climate (Köppen "BWh"). While the city is relatively dry, due to its coastal location, relative humidity is rather high, averaging 79% for the year.


title: Mogadishu

text: Mogadishu is located in or near the tropical thorn woodland biome of the Holdridge global bioclimatic scheme. The mean temperature in the city year round is , with an average maximum of and an average minimum of . Mean temperature readings per month vary by 3 °C (5.4 °F), corresponding with a hyperoceanic and subtype truly hyperoceanic continentality type. Precipitation per year averages . There are 47 wet days annually, which are associated with a 12% annual daily probability of rainfall. The city has an average of 3,066 hours of sunshine per year, with 8.4 hours of sunlight per day. Mean daylight hours and minutes per day are 8 hours and 24 minutes. The percentage of possible sunshine is 70%. Average sun altitude at solar noon on the 21st day of the month is 75%.


title: Mogadishu

text: The Government of Somalia has its seat in Mogadishu, the nation's capital. The Transitional Federal Government (TFG) was the internationally recognized central government of Somalia between 2004 and 2012. Based in Mogadishu, it constituted the executive branch of government.


title: Mogadishu

text: The Federal Government of Somalia was established on 20 August 2012 at the end of the TFG's interim mandate. It represented the first permanent central government in the country since the start of the civil war. The Federal Parliament of Somalia serves as the government's legislative branch.


title: Mogadishu

text: Mogadishu's municipal government is led by Omar Mohamud Mohamed (Finnish), who succeeded the late mayor Abdirahman Omar Osman (Yariisow) in August 2019 after the latter succumbed to his critical injuries after a suicide bomb attack targeted his office.


title: Mogadishu

text: Among the administration's development initiatives are a US$100 million urban renewal project, the creation of garbage disposal and incineration plants, the launch of a citywide cleanup project, the creation of asphalt and cement plants, rehabilitation of the Town Hall and parliament buildings, reconstruction of the former Defence Ministry offices, reconstruction of correctional facilities, rehabilitation and construction of health facilities, establishment of a Police Training Center and a permanent base in Jasiira for the new Somali Armed Forces, rebuilding of the Somali Postal Service headquarters, and rehabilitation of public playgrounds in several districts. In January 2014, the Benadir administration launched the House Numbering and Post Code System. It also began distributing national identity cards in March of the same year. In addition, the municipal authorities started renovating important local government centers in September 2014, including the capital's former Fisho Guverno compound. In January 2015, the Benadir administration also opened a new Health & Safety Office to supervise health and safety practices in the city, and launched a municipal beautification campaign ahead of various international conferences that are slated to be held there.


title: Mogadishu

text: In March 2015, the Benadir administration completed the SECIL project in conjunction with the EU and UNHABITAT. The 3.5 million EUR initiative lasted three and a half years, and saw the establishment in Mogadishu of a sustainable waste collection system, a technical training centre, water quality testing laboratories, better access to clean drinking water, improved employment and livelihood opportunities in the low-cost fuel production sector, strengthened skills training and regulation in the construction sector, and laboratories for the testing of construction material quality.


title: Mogadishu

text: A number of countries maintain foreign embassies and consulates in Mogadishu. As of January 2014, these diplomatic missions include the embassies of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Sudan, Libya, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran, Uganda, Nigeria, the United Kingdom, Japan, China, and Qatar. Embassies that are scheduled to reopen in the city include those of Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Italy and South Korea.


title: Mogadishu

text: In May 2015, in recognition of the sociopolitical progress made in Somalia and its return to effective governance, US Secretary of State John Kerry announced a preliminary plan to reestablish the US embassy in Mogadishu. He indicated that although there was no set timetable for the premises' relaunch, the US government had immediately begun upgrading its diplomatic representation in the country. President of Somalia Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke also presented to Kerry the real estate deed for land reserved for the new US embassy compound. Mohamud concurrently signed an Establishment Agreement with the EU Head of Delegation in Somalia Michele Cervone d’Urso, which facilitates the opening of more embassies in Mogadishu by European Union member states. The EU also announced that it had opened a new EU Delegation office in the city.


title: Mogadishu

text: In February 2014, Somalia's Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Abdirahman Duale Beyle announced that the federal government was slated to reopen the former Institute of Diplomacy in Mogadishu. The center historically served as one of the most important national institutions for diplomacy and international relations. Beyle also pledged to reestablish the institute's diplomacy department, its information and broadcasting department, as well as its library.


title: Mogadishu

text: Mogadishu traditionally served as a commercial and financial centre. Before the importation of mass-produced cloth from Europe and America, the city's textiles were forwarded throughout the interior of the continent, as well as to the Arabian Peninsula and as far as the Persian coast.


title: Mogadishu

text: Mogadishu's economy has grown rapidly since the city's pacification in mid 2011. The SomalFruit processing factory was reopened once again, as well as the local Coca-Cola factory, which was also refurbished. In May 2012, the First Somali Bank was established in the capital, representing the first commercial bank to open in southern Somalia since 1991. The Somali civil engineer and entrepreneur Nasra Agil opened the city's first Dollar store. The Historic Central Bank was regenerated, with the Moumin Business Center likewise under construction.


title: Mogadishu

text: The galvanization of Mogadishu's real estate sector was in part facilitated by the establishment of a local construction yard in November 2012 by the Municipality of Istanbul and the Turkish Red Crescent. 50 construction trucks and machines were imported from Turkey. The yard produces concrete, asphalt and paving stones for building projects and entrepreneurs. The Istanbul Municipality was also scheduled to bring in 100 specialists to accelerate the construction initiative which ultimately aims to modernize the capital's infrastructure.


title: Mogadishu

text: In mid-2012, Mogadishu held its first ever Technology, Entertainment, Design (TEDx) conference. The event was organized by the FirstSomali Bank to showcase improvements in business, development and security to potential Somali and international investors. A second consecutive TEDx entrepreneurial conference was held the following year in the capital, highlighting new enterprises and commercial opportunities, including the establishment of the city's first dry cleaning business in several years.


title: Mogadishu

text: A number of large firms have their headquarters in Mogadishu. Among these is the Trans-National Industrial Electricity and Gas Company, an energy conglomerate founded in 2010 that unites five major Somali companies from the trade, finance, security and telecommunications sectors. Other firms based in the city include Hormuud Telecom, the largest telecommunications company in southern and central Somalia. Telcom is another telecommunications service provider that is centered in the capital. The local Somali Energy Company specializes in the generation, transmission and distribution of electric power to residents and businesses within its service area in Banaadir. Villa and Mansion Architects, an international architectural firm founded by the Somali-British architect Alexander Yusuf has its regional offices in Mogadishu. The International Bank of Somalia, which opened downtown in 2014, offers Islamic finance and international banking services via a swift code system. The Islamic Insurance Company (First Takaful and Re-Takaful Insurance Company) is the city's first full service insurance firm in many years. The Central Bank of Somalia, the national monetary authority, also has its headquarters in Mogadishu.


title: Mogadishu

text: In June 2013, former Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon signed a new foreign investment law. The draft bill was prepared by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in conjunction with government attorneys. Approved by the Cabinet, it establishes a secure legal framework for foreign investment in Mogadishu and elsewhere in the country.


title: Mogadishu

text: In October 2014, the firm Tawakal Money Express (Tawakal) began construction of the seven-storey Tawakal Plaza Mogadishu. The new high rise is slated to be completed by the end of 2015, and will feature a Tawakal Global Bank customer and financial services center, a large, 338 square meter supermarket, a 46-room luxury hotel, restaurant and coffee shop facilities, and conference and event halls. In addition, the Nabaad Supermarket provides major retail service to local shoppers. Open daily until 10 pm, the convenience chain imports most of its products from the United Arab Emirates and China. The Al Buruuj firm also launched a major real estate project in January 2015, Daru-Salam City. Financed by the Salaam Somali Bank, the new urban complex includes town houses, apartment flats, a mosque, recreational areas, playgrounds, a supermarket and roads. It is slated to be erected just outside the northern part of the capital, within a 7-kilometer radius of the Industrial Road.


title: Mogadishu

text: Although Mogadishu is inhabited by a mix of Somali clan-families, it is mainly dominated by the Abgaal clan. with the Hawiye subclans that specifically dominate the city being the Abgaal, Habar Gidir and Murusade. Apart from the Somalis that have inhabited the city since the beginning, several minorities have also historically lived in the city. With the beginning of Islam, Arab and Persian migrants began to settle during the medieval period. Centuries of intermarriage between the various ethnic groups, which also include Bantus, produced a minority people called Benadiris, or ‘Ad’ad (), who mainly inhabit the oldest districts of Mogadishu. In the colonial period, European expatriates, primarily Italians, would also contribute to the city's cosmopolitan populace.


title: Mogadishu

text: Following a greatly improved security situation in the city in 2012, Somali expatriates began returning to Mogadishu for investment opportunities and to take part in the post-conflict reconstruction. Through both private efforts and public initiatives like the Somali Diaspora Corps, they have participated in the renovation of schools, hospitals, banks and other infrastructure. They have also helped to propel the local real estate market.


title: Mogadishu

text: According to Demographia, Mogadishu has a population of around 2,425,000 residents . It is the 210th largest city in the world by population size. The urban area occupies , with a population density of around . The UNFPA assisted the Ministry in the project, which is slated to be finalized ahead of the planned plebiscite and local and national elections in 2016.


title: Mogadishu

text: Arba'a Rukun Mosque is one of the oldest Islamic places of worship in the capital. It was built circa 667 (1268–9 AD) along with the Fakr ad-Din Mosque. Arba'a Rukun's mihrab contains an inscription dated from the same year, which commemorates the masjid's late founder, Khusra ibn Mubarak al-Shirazi (Khusrau ibn Muhammed).


title: Mogadishu

text: The Mosque of Islamic Solidarity was constructed in 1987 with financial support from the Saudi Fahd bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud Foundation. It is the main mosque in the city, and an iconic building in Somali society. With a capacity of up to 10,000 worshippers, it is the single largest masjid in the Horn region. In 2015, the federal authorities completed formal refurbishments on the mosque's infrastructure. The upgrades are part of a larger governmental renovation campaign aimed at all of the masjids in Mogadishu. To this end, the municipal authority is refurbishing the historic Central Mosque, situated downtown.


title: Mogadishu

text: The Mogadishu Cathedral was built in 1928 by the colonial authorities in Italian Somaliland. Known as the "Cattedrale di Mogadiscio", it was constructed in a Norman Gothic style, based on the Cefalù Cathedral in Cefalù, Sicily. The church served as the traditional seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Mogadiscio. It later incurred significant damage during the civil war. In April 2013, after a visit to the site to inspect its condition, the Diocese of Mogadiscio announced plans to refurbish the building.


title: Mogadishu

text: Villa Somalia is the official residential palace and principal workplace of the President of Somalia, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed. It sits on high ground that overlooks the city on the Indian Ocean, with access to both the harbour and airport.


title: Mogadishu

text: The Governor's Palace of Mogadishu was the seat of the governor of Italian Somaliland, and then the administrator of the Trust Territory of Somalia.


title: Mogadishu

text: The National Museum of Somalia was established after independence in 1960, when the old Garesa Museum was turned into a National Museum. The National Museum was later moved in 1985, renamed to the Garesa Museum, and converted to a regional museum. After shutting down, the National Museum later reopened. As of January 2014, it holds many culturally important artefacts, including old coins, bartering tools, traditional artwork, ancient weaponry and pottery items.


title: Mogadishu

text: The National Library of Somalia was established in 1975, and came under the responsibility of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Higher Education. In 1983, it held approximately 7,000 books, little in the way of historical and cultural archival material, and was open to the general public. The National Library later closed down in the 1990s. In June 2013, the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies organized a shipment of 22,000 books from the United States to Somalia as part of an initiative to restock the library. In December of the year, the Somali authorities officially launched a major project to rebuild the National Library. With Zainab Hassan serving as Director, the $1 million federal government-funded initiative will see a new library complex built in the capital within six months. In preparation for the relaunch, 60,000 additional books from other Arab League states are expected to arrive.


title: Mogadishu

text: The National Theatre of Somalia opened in 1967 as an important cultural landmark in the national capital. It closed down after the start of the civil war in the early 1990s but reopened in March 2012 after reconstruction. In September 2013, the Somali federal government and its Chinese counterpart signed an official cooperation agreement in Mogadishu as part of a five-year national recovery plan in Somalia. The pact will see the Chinese authorities reconstruct the National Theatre of Somalia in addition to several other major infrastructural landmarks.


title: Mogadishu

text: Bakaara Market was created in late 1972 by the Barre administration. It served as an open market for the sale of goods and services, including produce and clothing. After the start of the civil war, the market was controlled by militant groups, who used it as a base for their operations. Following Mogadishu's pacification in 2011, renovations resumed at the market. Shops were rehabilitated, selling everything from fruit and garments to building materials. As in the rest of the city, Barkaara Market's real estate values have also risen considerably. , the local Tabaarak firm was renting out a newly constructed warehouse at the market for $2,000 per month.


title: Mogadishu

text: In February 2014, the Benadir administration began renovations at the Ansaloti Market in the Hamar Jajab district. It was one of the largest markets in the city before closing down operations in the early 1990s. In September 2014, the municipal authorities reopened the Ansaloti to the public, with officials supervising all parts of the market. According to the Benadir Political Affairs Vice Chairman Mohamed Adan "Anagel", the facility is now open for business and will compete with other regional markets.


title: Mogadishu

text: The Regional Somali Language Academy is an intergovernmental regulating body for the Somali language in the Horn region. In January 2015, President of Somalia Hassan Sheikh Mohamud announced that the institute was slated to be finalized in conjunction with the governments of Djibouti and Ethiopia. Among the scheduled projects was the construction of a new headquarters for the academy in Mogadishu, in recognition of Somalia's traditional position as the center for the development and promotion of the Somali language. In February 2015, the foundation stone for the new Regional Somali Language Academy was officially laid at an inauguration ceremony in the city.


title: Mogadishu

text: Mogadishu has a number of hotels, most of which were recently constructed. The city's many returning expatriates, investors and foreign workers are among these establishments' main customers. To meet the growing demand, hotel representatives have also begun participating in international industry conferences, such as the Africa Hotel Investment Forum.


title: Mogadishu

text: Among the new hotels is the six-floor Jazeera Palace Hotel. It was built in 2010 and opened in 2012. Situated within a 300m of the Aden Adde International Airport, it has a 70-room capacity with a 70% occupancy rate. The hotel expects to host over 1,000 visitors by 2015, for which it plans to construct a larger overall building and conference facilities. A new landslide hotel within the airport itself is also slated to be completed by the end of the year.


title: Mogadishu

text: Other hotels in the city include the Lafweyn Palace Hotel, Amira Castle Hotel, Sahafi Hotel, Hotel Nasa-Hablod, Oriental Hotel, Hotel Guuleed, Hotel Shamo, Peace Hotel, Aran Guest House, Muna Hotel, Hotel Taleex, Hotel Towfiq, Benadir Hotel, Ambassador Hotel, Kuwait Plaza Hotel, Safari Hotel Diplomat, Dayax Hotel, Safari Guesthouse and Bin Ali Hotel. The Posh Hotel was mostly destroyed by a suicide bomber in June 2017.


title: Mogadishu

text: Mogadishu is home to a number of scholastic institutions. As part of the government's urban renewal program, 100 schools across the country are scheduled to be refurbished and reopened. Compulsory education lasts 15 years, Primary and middle school is financed by the state and free of charge in public schools, between the ages of 7 and 19, and by 2015 enrollment of children in this age range was nearly 55%. Secondary or high school education is not mandatory but required in order to then progress to universities.


title: Mogadishu

text: The Somali National University (SNU) was established in the 1950s, during the trusteeship period. In 1973, its programmes and facilities were expanded. The SNU developed over the next 20 years into an expansive institution of higher learning, with 13 departments, 700 staff and over 15,000 students. On 14 November 2013, the Cabinet unanimously approved a federal government plan to reopen the Somali National University, which had been closed down in the early 1990s. The refurbishing initiative cost US$3.6 million, and was completed in August 2014.


title: Mogadishu

text: Mogadishu University (MU) is a non-governmental university that is governed by a board of trustees and a University Council. It is the brainchild of a number of professors from the Somali National University as well as other Somali intellectuals. Financed by the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as well as other donor institutions, the university counts hundreds of graduates from its seven faculties, some of whom continue on to pursue Master's degrees abroad thanks to a scholarship programme. Mogadishu University has established partnerships with several other academic institutions, including the University of Aalborg in Denmark, three universities in Egypt, seven universities in Sudan, the University of Djibouti, and two universities in Yemen. , MU also has accreditation with the Board of the Intergovernmental Organization EDU.


title: Mogadishu

text: In 1999, the Somali Institute of Management and Administration (SIMAD) was co-established in Mogadishu by incumbent President of Somalia Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. The institution subsequently grew into the SIMAD University, with Mohamud acting as dean until 2010. It offers a range of undergraduate courses in various fields, including economics, statistics, business, accountancy, technology, computer science, health sciences, education, law and public administration.


title: Mogadishu

text: Benadir University (BU) was established in 2002 with the intention of training doctors. It has since expanded into other fields. Another tertiary institution in the city is the Zamzam University of Science and Technology and Jamhuriya University of Science and Technology . The Turkish Boarding School was also established, with the Mogadishu Polytechnic Institute and Shabelle University campus likewise undergoing renovations. Additionally, a New Islamic University campus is being built. In April 2014, Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed also laid the foundation stone for the reconstruction of the former meteorological school in Mogadishu. A new national Aviation Training Academy is likewise being built at the Aden Adde International Airport.


title: Mogadishu

text: City University was established in 2012 with the aim of providing instruction and research. The college is staffed by an accredite Master's-level faculty, and governed by a board of trustees consisting of academics and prominent entrepreneurs. City University's syllabus features a curriculum and foundation programs in English. Its campus includes physical and digital libraries, as well as IT and scientific laboratories. The university is a member of the Somali Research and Educational Network, and is authorized as a degree-granting institution by the national Ministry of Education Directorate of Higher Education and Culture.


title: Mogadishu

text: Other tertiary institutions in the capital include Zamzam University of Science and Technology. In 2012, Zamzam foundation started agricultural training school declared its purpose to be “rebuilding food production system of the country and accelerate its yield, while promoting income generation for low-income families”. The School conducted 22 training programs during that period. in 2013 the Agricultural training school became Zamzam University of Science & Technology (ZUST). the first classes for the Bachelor's degree September 2014, followed by the faculty of Medicine in 2015. Currently the ZUST has six faculties and center for graduate studies. The permanent campus of the university is located in the KM11 Weydoow Mogadishu.


title: Mogadishu

text: As Somalia's capital city, many important national institutions are based in Mogadishu. It is the seat of the Federal Government of Somalia established in August 2012, with the Somalia Federal Parliament serving as the government's legislative branch. Abdirahman Omar Osman has been the Mayor of Mogadishu since January 2018. Villa Somalia is the official residential palace and principal workplace of the President of Somalia, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed. In May 2012, the First Somali Bank was established in the capital, which organized Mogadishu's first-ever Technology, Entertainment, Design (TEDx) conference. The establishment of a local construction yard has also galvanized the city's real-estate sector. Arba'a Rukun Mosque is one of the oldest Islamic places of worship in the capital, built circa AH 667 (1268–69 CE). The Mosque of Islamic Solidarity in Mogadishu is the largest masjid in the Horn region. Mogadishu Cathedral was built in 1928 by the colonial authorities in Italian Somalia in a Norman Gothic style, and served as the traditional seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Mogadiscio. The National Museum of Somalia is based in Mogadishu and holds many culturally important artefacts. The National Library of Somalia is undergoing a US$1.5 million Somali federal government funded renovation, including a new library complex.


title: Mogadishu

text: Mogadishu is home to scholastic and media institutions. As part of the municipality's urban renewal program, 100 schools across the capital are scheduled to be refurbished and reopened. The Somali National University (SNU) was established in the 1950s, and professors from the university later founded the non-governmental Mogadishu University (MU). Benadir University (BU) was established in 2002 with the intention of training doctors. Various national sporting bodies have their headquarters in Mogadishu, including the Somali Football Federation and the Somali Olympic Committee. Mogadishu Stadium was constructed in 1978 during the Siad Barre administration, with the assistance of Chinese engineers. It hosts football matches with teams from the Somali First Division and the Somalia Cup. Additionally, the Port of Mogadishu serves as a major national seaport and is the largest harbour in Somalia. Mogadishu International Airport is the capital's main airport.


title: Mogadishu

text: Mogadishu Stadium was constructed in 1978 during the Barre administration, with the assistance of Chinese engineers. The facility was mainly used for hosting sporting activities, such as the Somalia Cup and for football matches with teams from the Somalia League. Presidential addresses and political rallies, among other events, were also held there. In September 2013, the Somali federal government and its Chinese counterpart signed an official cooperation agreement in Mogadishu as part of a five-year national recovery plan in Somalia. The pact will see the Chinese authorities reconstruct several major infrastructural landmarks, including the Mogadishu Stadium.


title: Mogadishu

text: The Banadir Stadium and Konis Stadium are two other major sporting facilities in the capital. In 2013, the Somali Football Federation launched a renovation project at the Konis facility, during which artificial football turf contributed by FIFA was installed at the stadium. The Ex-Lujino basketball stadium in the Abdulaziz District also underwent a $10,000 rehabilitation, with funding provided by the local Hormuud Telecom firm. Additionally, the municipal authority oversaw the reconstruction of the Banadir Stadium.


title: Mogadishu

text: National sporting bodies have their headquarters in Mogadishu. Among these are the Somali Football Federation, Somali Olympic Committee and Somali Basketball Federation. The Somali Karate and Taekwondo Federation is likewise centered in the city, and manages the national Taekwondo team.


title: Mogadishu

text: Roads leading out of Mogadishu connect the city to other localities in Somalia as well as to neighbouring countries. The capital itself is cut into several grid layouts by an extensive road network. In October 2013, major construction began on the 23-kilometer road leading to the airport. Overseen by Somali and Turkish engineers, the upgrade was completed in November and included lane demarcation. The road construction initiative was part of a larger agreement signed by the Somali and Turkish governments to establish Mogadishu and Istanbul as sister cities, and in the process bring all of Mogadishu's roads up to modern standards. Following the treaty, the Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA) launched a citywide cleaning project in conjunction with the municipal cleaning department. The initiative saw around 100 rubbish collection vehicles and other equipment operated by TIKA clean the city's roads, with the Benadir municipality taking over operation of the cleaning project in March 2015.


title: Mogadishu

text: In 2012–2013, Mogadishu's municipal authority in conjunction with the British and Norwegian governments began a project to install solar-powered street lights on all of the capital's major roads. With equipment imported from Norway, the initiative cost around $140,000 and lasted several months. The solar panels have helped to improve night-time visibility and enhance the city's overall aesthetic appeal.


title: Mogadishu

text: Minibuses are the most common type of public transportation in Mogadishu. The next most frequently used public vehicles in the city are auto rickshaws ("bajaj"). They number around 3,000 units and come in various designs. The auto-rickshaws represent a lower cost alternative to taxis and minibuses, typically charging half the price for the same distance, with flexible rates. Due to their affordability, capacity to negotiate narrow lanes and low fuel consumption, the three-wheeled vehicles are often appealing investment opportunities for small-scale entrepreneurs. They are generally preferred for shorter commutes. In June 2013, two new taxi companies also started offering road transportation to residents. Part of a fleet of over 100 vehicles, Mogadishu Taxi's trademark yellow cabs offer rides throughout the city at flat rates of $5. City Taxi, the firm's nearest competitor, charges the same flat rate, with plans to add new cabs to its fleet.


title: Mogadishu

text: In January 2014, the Benadir administration launched a citywide street naming, house numbering and postal codes project. Officially called the House Numbering and Post Code System, it is a joint initiative of the municipal authorities and Somali business community representatives. According to former Mayor Mohamed Ahmed Nur, the initiative also aims to help the authorities firm up on security and resolve housing ownership disputes. In March 2015, the Benadir administration likewise launched a renovation project on the Hawo Asir-Fagah major road in Mogadishu. The government-public partnership aims to facilitate vehicle access in the area. According to Karaan district commissioner Ahmed Hassan Yalah'ow, the reconstruction initiative will also make the road all-weather resistant and is slated to be completed shortly.


title: Mogadishu

text: During the post-independence period, Mogadishu International Airport offered flights to numerous global destinations. In the mid-1960s, the airport was enlarged to accommodate more international carriers, with the state-owned Somali Airlines providing regular trips to all major cities. By 1969, the airport's many landing grounds could also host small jets and DC 6B-type aircraft.


title: Mogadishu

text: The facility grew considerably in size in the post-independence period after successive renovation projects. With the outbreak of the civil war in the early 1990s, Mogadishu International Airport's flight services experienced routine disruptions and its grounds and equipment were largely destroyed. In the late 2000s, the K50 Airport, situated 50 kilometers to the south, served as the capital's main airport while Mogadishu International Airport, now renamed Aden Adde International Airport, briefly shut down. However, in late 2010, the security situation in Mogadishu had significantly improved, with the federal government eventually managing to assume full control of the city by August 2011.


title: Mogadishu

text: In May 2011, the Ministry of Transport announced that SKA-Somalia had been contracted to manage operations at the re-opened Aden Adde International Airport over a period of ten years. Among its first initiatives, worth an estimated $6 million, SKA invested in new airport equipment and expanded support services by hiring, training and equipping 200 local workers to meet international airport standards. The company also assisted in comprehensive infrastructure renovations, restored a dependable supply of electricity, revamped the baggage handling facilities as well as the arrival and departure lounges, put into place electronic check-in systems, and firmed up on security and work-flow. Additionally, SKA connected the grounds' Somali Civil Aviation and Meteorological Agency (SCAMA) and immigration, customs, commercial airlines and Somali Police Force officials to the internet. By January 2013, the firm had introduced shuttle buses to ferry travelers to and from the passenger terminal.


title: Mogadishu

text: In December 2011, the Turkish government unveiled plans to further modernize the airport as part of Turkey's broader engagement in the local post-conflict reconstruction process. Among the scheduled renovations were new systems and infrastructure, including a modern control tower to monitor the airspace. In September 2013, the Turkish company Favori LLC began operations at the airport. The firm announced plans to renovate the aviation building and construct a new one, as well as upgrade other modern service structures. A $10 million project, it will increase the airport's existing 15 aircraft capacity to 60. In January 2015, a new, state-of-the-art terminal was opened at the airport. Featuring modern passenger facilities and a glass façade, it will enable the airport to double its number of daily commercial flights to 60, with a throughput of around 1,000 passengers per hour.


title: Mogadishu

text: As of January 2015, the largest airline services using Aden Adde International Airport include the Somali-owned private carriers Jubba Airways, Daallo Airlines, and African Express Airways, in addition to UN charter planes, Turkish Airlines, The airport also offers flights to other cities in Somalia, such as Galkayo, Berbera and Hargeisa, as well as to international destinations like Djibouti, Jeddah, and Istanbul.


title: Mogadishu

text: In July 2012, Mohammed Osman Ali (Dhagah-tur), the General Director of the Ministry of Aviation and Transport, also announced that the Somali government had begun preparations to revive the Mogadishu-based national carrier, Somali Airlines. The first new aircraft were scheduled for delivery in December 2013.


title: Mogadishu

text: The Port of Mogadishu, also known as the Mogadishu International Port, is the official seaport of Mogadishu. Classified as a major class port, it is the largest harbour in the country.


title: Mogadishu

text: After incurring some damage during the civil war, the federal government launched the Mogadishu Port Rehabilitation Project, an initiative to rebuild, develop and modernize the port. The renovations included the installation of Alpha Logistics technology. A joint international delegation consisting of the Director of the Port of Djibouti and Chinese officials specializing in infrastructure reconstruction visited the facility in June 2013. According to Mogadishu Port manager Abdullahi Ali Nur, the delegates along with local Somali officials received reports on the port's functions as part of the rebuilding project's planning stages.


title: Mogadishu

text: In 2013, the Port of Mogadishu's management reportedly reached an agreement with representatives of the Iranian company Simatech Shipping LLC to handle vital operations at the seaport. Under the name Mogadishu Port Container Terminal, the firm is slated to handle all of the port's technical and operational functions.


title: Mogadishu

text: In October 2013, the federal Cabinet endorsed an agreement with the Turkish firm Al-Bayrak to manage the Port of Mogadishu for a 20-year period. The deal was secured by the Ministry of Ports and Public Works, and also assigns Al-Bayrak responsibility for rebuilding and modernizing the seaport. In September 2014, the federal government officially delegated management of the Mogadishu Port to Al-Bayrak. The firm's modernization project will cost $80 million.


title: Mogadishu

text: There were projects during the 1980s to reactivate the railway between Mogadishu and Jowhar, built by the Italians in 1926 but dismantled in World War II by British troops. It was originally intended that this railway would reach Addis Ababa. Only a few remaining tracks inside Mogadishu's harbour area are still used.


title: Mogadishu

text: Mogadishu has historically served as a media hub. In 1975, the Somali Film Agency (SFA), the nation's film regulatory body, was established in Mogadishu. The SFA also organized the annual Mogadishu Pan-African and Arab Film Symposium (Mogpaafis), which brought together an array of filmmakers and movie experts from across the globe, including other parts of Northeast Africa and the Arab world, as well as Asia and Europe.


title: Mogadishu

text: In addition, there are a number of radio news agencies based in Mogadishu. Radio Mogadishu is the federal government-run public broadcaster. Established in 1951 in Italian Somaliland, it initially aired news items in both Somali and Italian. The station was modernized with Russian assistance following independence in 1960, and began offering home service in Somali, Amharic and Oromo. After closing down operations in the early 1990s due to the civil war, the broadcaster was officially re-opened in the early 2000s by the Transitional National Government. Other radio stations headquartered in the city include Mustaqbal Radio, Radio Shabelle, Radio Bar-Kulan, Radio Kulmiye, Radio Dannan, Radio Dalsan, Radio Banadir, Radio Maanta, Gool FM, Radio Xurmo, and Radio Xamar, also known as Voice of Democracy.


title: Mogadishu

text: The Mogadishu-based Somali National Television (SNTV) is the central government-owned broadcaster. On 4 April 2011, the Ministry of Information of the Transitional Federal Government officially re-launched the station as part of an initiative to develop the national telecommunications sector. SNTV broadcasts 24 hours a day, and can be viewed both within Somalia and abroad via terrestrial and satellite platforms.


title: Mogadishu

text: Somali popular music enjoys a large audience in Mogadishu, and was widely sold prior to the civil war. With the government managing to secure the city in mid-2011, radios once again play music. On 19 March 2012, an open concert was held in the city, which was broadcast live on local television. In April 2013, the Waayaha Cusub ensemble also organized the Reconciliation Music Festival, the first international music festival to be held in Mogadishu in two decades.


title: Happy Feet

text: Happy Feet is a 2006 computer-animated jukebox musical comedy film directed, produced, and co-written by George Miller. It stars the voices of Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Brittany Murphy, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Hugo Weaving, and E.G. Daily. An international co-production between the United States and Australia, the film was produced at Sydney-based visual effects and animation studio Animal Logic for Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures, and Kingdom Feature Productions, and was released in North American theaters on November 17, 2006, and in Australian theaters on December 26, 2006. It is the first animated film produced by Kennedy Miller and Animal Logic. Set in the cold land of Antarctica, the film follows Mumble, an emperor penguin who, despite his lacking the ability to sing the heartsong to attract a soul mate, is able to tap dance brilliantly. After being exiled from Emperor Land by Noah the Elder, Mumble befriends the Amigos, who help him rediscover himself.


title: Happy Feet

text: Though primarily an animated film, the film does incorporate motion capture of live action humans in certain scenes. The film was simultaneously released in both conventional theatres and in IMAX 2D format. The studio had hinted that a future IMAX 3D release was a possibility. However, Warner Bros., the film's production company, was on too tight a budget to release "Happy Feet" in IMAX digital 3D.


title: Happy Feet

text: "Happy Feet" received generally positive reviews from critics with praise for its visuals, storyline and songs, and grossed $384 million against its $100 million production budget. It earned the recipient of the inaugural BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film, and the fourth non-Disney or Pixar film to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. It was nominated for the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature and the Saturn Award for Best Animated Film, both losing to "Cars". A sequel, "Happy Feet Two", was released on November 18, 2011, but it was unable to replicate the critical and commercial success of the original film.


title: Happy Feet

text: Every emperor penguin attracts a mate by singing a unique "heartsong". If the male penguin's heartsong matches the female's song, the two penguins mate. Norma Jean, a female penguin, falls for Memphis, a male penguin and they become mates. They lay an egg, which Memphis cares for while Norma Jean leaves with the other females to fish. While the males struggle through the harsh winter, Memphis briefly drops the egg. The resulting chick, Mumble, is unable to sing but can tap dance. Nevertheless, he is enamored with Gloria, a female penguin who is regarded as the most talented of her age. One day, Mumble encounters a group of hostile skua, with a leader who is tagged with a yellow band, which he says is from an alien abduction. Mumble narrowly escapes the hungry birds by falling into a crevice.


title: Happy Feet

text: Now a young adult, Mumble is frequently ridiculed by the elders and their leader Noah. After escaping from a leopard seal attack, Mumble befriends five Adelie penguins named Ramón, Nestor, Lombardo, Rinaldo and Raul, known collectively as "the Amigos", who embrace Mumble's dance moves and assimilate him into their group. After seeing a hidden human excavator in an avalanche, they opt to ask Lovelace, a rockhopper penguin, about its origin. Lovelace has the plastic rings of a six pack entangled around his neck, saying that they have been bestowed upon him by mystic beings.


title: Happy Feet

text: For the emperor penguins, it is mating season and Gloria is the center of attention. The Amigos unsuccessfully attempt to help Mumble win her affection by having Ramón sing a Spanish version of "My Way" behind Mumble, with the latter lip syncing. After Mumble desperately begins tap dancing in synch with her song, she falls for him and the youthful penguins join in for singing and dancing to "Boogie Wonderland". The elders are appalled by Mumble's conduct, which they see as the reason for their lean fishing season. Memphis begs Mumble to stop dancing, for his own sake, but when Mumble refuses, he is exiled.


title: Happy Feet

text: Mumble and the Amigos return to Lovelace, only to find him being choked by the plastic rings. Lovelace confesses they were snagged on him while swimming off the forbidden shores, beyond the land of the elephant seals. Not long into their journey, Gloria encounters them, wishing to become Mumble's mate. Fearing for her safety, he ridicules Gloria, driving her away.


title: Happy Feet

text: At the forbidden shore, Mumble, Lovelace and the Amigos are attacked by the two orcas, during which Lovelace gets free from the plastic rings. After escaping, they find a fishing boat. Mumble exhaustingly pursues it alone, eventually washing up on the shore of Florida, where he is rescued and kept at Sea World with Magellanic penguins. After a long and secluded confinement in addition to fruitlessly trying to communicate with the humans, he nearly succumbs to madness. When a girl attempts to interact with Mumble by tapping the glass, he starts dancing, which attracts a large crowd. He is released back into the wild, with a tracking device attached to his back. He returns to his colony and challenges the will of the elders. Memphis reconciles with him, just as a research team arrives, verifying Mumble's statements of "aliens" existing. The entire colony engages in dance in front of the research team, whose expedition footage prompts a worldwide debate, which eventually leads to the banning of all Antarctic overfishing, satisfying both the emperor penguins and the Amigos.


title: Happy Feet

text: George Miller cites as an initial inspiration for the film an encounter with a grizzled old cameraman, whose father was Frank Hurley of the Shackleton expeditions, during the shooting of "Mad Max 2": "We were sitting in this bar, having a milkshake, and he looked across at me and said, ‘Antarctica.’ He'd shot a documentary there. He said, ‘You’ve got to make a film in Antarctica. It’s just like out here, in the wasteland. It’s spectacular.’ And that always stuck in my head."


title: Happy Feet

text: "Happy Feet" was also partially inspired by earlier documentaries such as the BBC's "Life in the Freezer". In 2001, during an otherwise non-sequitur meeting, Doug Mitchell impulsively presented Warner Bros., studio president Alan Horn with an early rough draft of the film's screenplay, and asked them to read it while he and Miller flew back to Australia. By the time they'd landed, Warner had decided to provide funding on the film. Production was slated to begin sometime after the completion of the fourth "Mad Max" film, "", but geo-political complications pushed "Happy Feet" to the forefront in early 2003.


title: Happy Feet

text: The animation is invested heavily in motion capture technology, with the dance scenes acted out by human dancers. The tap-dancing for Mumble in particular was provided by Savion Glover who was also co-choreographer for the dance sequences. The dancers went through "Penguin School" to learn how to move like a penguin, and also wore head apparatus to mimic a penguin's beak.


title: Happy Feet

text: "Happy Feet" needed an enormous group of computers, and Animal Logic worked with IBM to build a server farm with sufficient processing potential. The film took four years to make. Ben Gunsberger, Lighting Supervisor and VFX Department Supervisor, says this was partly because they needed to build new infrastructure and tools. The server farm used IBM BladeCenter framework and BladeCenter HS20 blade servers, which are extremely dense separate computer units each with two Intel Xeon processors. Rendering took up 17 million CPU hours over a nine-month period.


title: Happy Feet

text: According to Miller, the environmental message was not a major part of the original script, but "In Australia, we're very, very aware of the ozone hole," he said, "and Antarctica is literally the canary in the coal mine for this stuff. So it sort of had to go in that direction." This influence led to a film with a more environmental tone. Miller said, "You can't tell a story about Antarctica and the penguins without giving that dimension."


title: Happy Feet

text: The film was dedicated to the memory of Nick Enright, Michael Jonson, Robby McNeilly Green, and Steve Irwin.


title: Happy Feet

text: "Happy Feet" is a jukebox musical, taking previously recorded songs and working them into the film's soundtrack to fit with the mood of the scene or character. Two soundtrack albums were released for the film; one containing songs from and inspired by the film, and another featuring John Powell's instrumental score. They were released on 31 October 2006 and 19 December 2006, respectively.


title: Happy Feet

text: Prince's "Song of the Heart" won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. The film won Golden Trailer Award for Best Music. The song was written by Prince specifically for "Happy Feet" shortly after he was given a private screening of the film in order to gain his approval for the use of his song "Kiss" in a musical number. Prince enjoyed the film, gave his approval for the use of "Kiss" and offered to write an original song for the production, which he completed a week later.


title: Happy Feet

text: "Happy Feet: Music from the Motion Picture" is the lyrical soundtrack album from the 2006 animated film "Happy Feet". As of March 2007, the OST has sold over 272,627 copies in the US.


title: Happy Feet

text: The film opened at number 1 in the United States on its first weekend of release (17–19 November), grossing $41.6 million and beating "Casino Royale" for the top spot. It remained number 1 for the Thanksgiving weekend, making $51.6 million over the five-day period. In total, the film was the top grosser for three weeks, a 2006 box office feat matched only by "". As of 8 June 2008, "Happy Feet" had grossed $198.0 million in the U.S. and $186.3 million overseas, making about $384.3 million worldwide. "Happy Feet" was the third highest grossing animated film of 2006 in the U.S., behind "Cars" and "". The film was released in about 35 international territories at the close of 2006.


title: Happy Feet

text: "Happy Feet" received generally positive reviews from critics. On review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 76% "Certified Fresh" score based on 168 reviews, with an average rating of 6.90/10. The site's consensus reads, "Visually dazzling, with a thoughtful storyline and catchy musical numbers, "Happy Feet" marks a successful animated debut from the makers of "Babe"." Metacritic reports a 77 out of 100 rating, based on 30 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Happy Feet

text: The film garnered analysis and dissection from various critics. Film critic Yar Habnegnal wrote an essay in "Forum on Contemporary Art and Society" that examines the themes of encroachment presented throughout the film, as well as various other subtexts and themes, such as religious hierarchy and interracial tensions. Vadim Rizov of IFC sees Mumble as just the latest in a long line of cinematic religious mavericks. Some Christians have also considered the film to be anti-Christian (or antireligious in general) due to the imagery and behaviours of various characters.


title: Happy Feet

text: On a technical or formal level, the film has also been lauded in some corners for its innovative introduction of Miller's roving style of subjective cinematography into contemporary animation.


title: Happy Feet

text: "Happy Feet" was released on home media on March 27, 2007, in the United States in three formats: DVD (in separate widescreen and pan-and-scan editions), Blu-ray Disc, and an HD DVD/DVD combo pack.


title: Happy Feet

text: Among the DVD's special features is a scene that was cut from the film where Mumble meets a blue whale and an albatross while pursuing the fishing boat. The albatross was Steve Irwin's first voice role in the film before he voiced the elephant seal in the final cut. The scene was finished and included on the DVD in Irwin's memory. This scene is done in Irwin's classic documentary style, with the albatross telling the viewer all about the other characters in the scene, and the impact people are having on their environment. Another special feature included with the DVD is the 1936 Merrie Melodies short "I Love to Singa".


title: Happy Feet

text: A video game based on the film was developed by A2M and published by Midway Games. It has the same main cast as the film. It was released for the PC, PlayStation 2, GameCube, GBA, NDS, and Wii.


title: Happy Feet

text: "Happy Feet Two" was produced at Dr. D Studios and released on November 18, 2011. Wood and Williams reprised their roles for the sequel. Murphy was set to reprise her role and begin recording sometime in 2010, but was replaced by P!nk after Murphy died from pneumonia on December 20, 2009. Matt Damon and Brad Pitt signed on as Bill the Krill and Will the Krill respectively. The film was neither critically nor financially as successful as its predecessor and its performance at the box office resulted in Dr. D Studios closing down.


title: Happy Feet

text: "Happy Feet 4-D Experience" is a 12-minute 4D film shown at various 4D theaters over the world. It retells the condensed story of "Happy Feet" with the help of 3D projection and sensory effects, including moving seats, wind, mist and scents. Produced by SimEx-Iwerks, the 4D experience premiered in March 2010 at the Drayton Manor Theme Park. Other locations included Sea World (2010–2011), Shedd Aquarium (2010–2012), Moody Gardens (2010–2011), Nickelodeon Suites Resort, and Adventure Aquarium.


title: Ariadne

text: Ariadne (; ; ) was a Cretan princess in Greek mythology. She was mostly associated with mazes and labyrinths because of her involvement in the myths of the Minotaur and Theseus. She is best known for having helped Theseus escape the Minotaur but being abandoned by him on the island of Naxos; subsequently, she became the wife of Dionysus. (There are many other versions of her myth.)


title: Ariadne

text: The ancient Roman author Hyginus identified Ariadne as the Roman Libera/Proserpina at approximately the same time as Libera was officially identified with Proserpina in 205 BC, these two names becoming synonymous for the same goddess. Hyginus equated Libera/Proserpina with Ariadne as bride to Liber whose Greek equivalent was Dionysus, the husband of Ariadne.


title: Ariadne

text: Greek lexicographers in the Hellenistic period claimed that "Ariadne" is derived from the ancient Cretan dialectical elements "ari" (ἀρι-) "most" (which is an intensive prefix) and "adnós" (ἀδνός) "holy". Conversely, Stylianos Alexiou has argued that despite the belief being that Ariadne's name is of Indo-European origin, it's actually pre-Greek.


title: Ariadne

text: Linguist Robert S. P. Beekes has also supported Ariadne having a pre-Greek origin; specifically being Minoan from Crete. This being due to her name containing the sequence "dn" (δν), which is rare in Indo-European languages, indicating that it is a Minoan loanword.


title: Ariadne

text: Ariadne was the daughter of Minos, the King of Crete and son of Zeus, and of Pasiphaë, Minos' queen and daughter of Helios. Others denominated her mother "Crete", daughter of Asterius, the husband and King of Europa. Ariadne was the sister of Acacallis, Androgeus, Deucalion, Phaedra, Glaucus, Xenodice, and Catreus. Through her mother, Pasiphaë, she was also the half-sister of the Minotaur.


title: Ariadne

text: Ariadne married Dionysus and became the mother of Oenopion, the personification of wine, Staphylus, who was associated with grapes, Thoas, Peparethus, Phanus, Eurymedon, Phliasus, Ceramus, Maron, Euanthes, Latramys, Tauropolis, Enyeus and Eunous.


title: Ariadne

text: Minos put Ariadne in charge of the labyrinth where sacrifices were made as part of reparations either to Poseidon or Athena, depending on the version of the myth; later, she helped Theseus conquer the Minotaur and save the victims from sacrifice. In other narrations she was the bride of Dionysus, her status as mortal or divine varying in those accounts.


title: Ariadne

text: Because ancient Greek myths were orally transmitted, like other myths, that of Ariadne has many variations. According to an Athenian version, Minos attacked Athens after his son was killed there. The Athenians asked for terms and were required to sacrifice 7 young men and 7 maidens to the Minotaur every 7 or 9 years. One year, the sacrificial party included Theseus, the son of King Aegeus, who volunteered to kill the Minotaur. Ariadne fell in love with him at first sight and provided him a sword and ball of thread (ο Μίτος της Αριάδνης, "Ariadne's string") so that he could retrace his way out of the labyrinth of the Minotaur.


title: Ariadne

text: Ariadne betrayed her father and her country for her lover Theseus. She eloped with Theseus after he killed the Minotaur, yet according to Homer in the "Odyssey" "he had no joy of her, for ere that, Artemis slew her in seagirt Dia because of the witness of Dionysus". The phrase “seagirt Dia” refers to the uninhabited island of Dia, which lies off the northern coast of the Greek island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea. Most accounts claim that Theseus abandoned Ariadne, and in some versions Perseus mortally wounds her. According to some, Dionysus claimed Ariadne as wife, therefore causing Theseus to abandon her. Homer does not elaborate on the nature of Dionysus' accusation, yet the "Oxford Classical Dictionary" speculated that she was already married to him when she eloped with Theseus.


title: Ariadne

text: In Hesiod and most other versions, Theseus abandoned Ariadne sleeping on Naxos, and Dionysus rediscovered and wedded her. In a few versions of the myth, Dionysus appeared to Theseus as they sailed from Crete, saying that he had chosen Ariadne as his wife and demanding that Theseus leave her on Naxos for him; this had the effect of absolving the Athenian cultural hero of desertion. The vase painters of Athens often depicted Athena leading Theseus from the sleeping Ariadne to his ship.


title: Ariadne

text: She bore Dionysus famous children including Oenopion, Staphylus, and Thoas. Her wedding diadem was set in the heavens as the constellation Corona Borealis. Ariadne was faithful to Dionysus. Perseus killed her at Argos by turning her to stone with the head of Medusa during Perseus' war with Dionysus. In the "Odyssey", it is told that Artemis killed her. According to Plutarch, there was a version of the myth in which Ariadne hanged herself after being abandoned by Theseus. Dionysus then went to Hades, and brought her and his mother Semele to Mount Olympus, where they were deified. Some scholars have posited, because of her associations with thread spinning and winding, that she was a weaving goddess, like Arachne, and support this theory with the mytheme of the Hanged Nymph (see weaving in mythology).


title: Ariadne

text: Karl Kerenyi and Robert Graves theorized that Ariadne, whose name they thought derived from Hesychius' enumeration of "Άδνον", a Cretan-Greek form of ""arihagne"" ("utterly pure"), was a Great Goddess of Crete, "the first divine personage of Greek mythology to be immediately recognized in Crete", once archaeological investigation began. Kerenyi observed that her name was merely an epithet and claimed that she was originally the "Mistress of the Labyrinth", both a winding dancing ground and, in the Greek opinion, a prison with the dreaded Minotaur in its centre. Kerenyi explained that a Linear B inscription from Knossos "to all the gods, honey ... [,] to the mistress of the labyrinth honey" in equal amounts, implied to him that the Mistress of the Labyrinth was a Great Goddess in her own right. Professor Barry Powell suggested that she was the Snake Goddess of Minoan Crete.


title: Ariadne

text: Plutarch, in his "vita" of Theseus, which treats him as a historical person, reported that in contemporary Naxos was an earthly Ariadne, who was distinct from a divine one:


title: Ariadne

text: Some of the Naxians also have a story of their own, that there were two Minoses and two Ariadnes, one of whom, they say, was married to Dionysos in Naxos and bore him Staphylos and his brother, and the other, of a later time, having been carried off by Theseus and then abandoned by him, came to Naxos, accompanied by a nurse named Korkyne, whose tomb they show; and that this Ariadne also died there.


title: Ariadne

text: In a kylix by the painter Aison (circa 425 to circa 410 BCE) Theseus drags the Minotaur from a temple-like labyrinth, yet the goddess who attends him in this Attic representation is Athena.


title: Ariadne

text: An ancient cult of Aphrodite-Ariadne was observed at Amathus, Cyprus, according to the obscure Hellenistic mythographer Paeon of Amathus; his works are lost, but his narrative is among the sources that Plutarch cited in his "vita" of Theseus (20.3-5). According to the myth that was current at Amathus, the second most important Cypriote cult centre of Aphrodite, Theseus' ship was swept off course and the pregnant and suffering Ariadne put ashore in the storm. Theseus, attempting to secure the ship, was inadvertently swept out to sea, thus being absolved of abandoning Ariadne. The Cypriote women cared for Ariadne, who died in childbirth and was memorialized in a shrine. Theseus, overcome with grief upon his return, left money for sacrifices to Ariadne and ordered two cult images, one of silver and one of bronze, erected. At the observation in her honour on the second day of the month Gorpiaeus, a young man lay on the ground and vicariously experienced the throes of labour. The sacred grove in which the shrine was located was denominated the "Grove of Aphrodite-Ariadne". According to Cypriote legend, Ariadne's tomb was located within the "temenos" of the sanctuary of Aphrodite-Ariadne. The primitive nature of the cult at Amathus in this narrative appears to be much older than the Athenian sanctioned shrine of Aphrodite, who at Amathus received "Ariadne" (derived from ""hagne"", "sacred") as an epithet.


title: Ariadne

text: Ariadne, in Etruscan "Areatha", is paired with Dionysus, in Etruscan "Fufluns", on Etruscan engraved bronze mirror backs, where the Athenian cultural hero Theseus is absent, and Semele, in Etruscan "Semla", as mother of Dionysus, may accompany the pair, lending an especially Etruscan air of familial authority.


title: Cardiovascular disease

text: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels. CVD includes coronary artery diseases (CAD) such as angina and myocardial infarction (commonly known as a heart attack). Other CVDs include stroke, heart failure, hypertensive heart disease, rheumatic heart disease, cardiomyopathy, abnormal heart rhythms, congenital heart disease, valvular heart disease, carditis, aortic aneurysms, peripheral artery disease, thromboembolic disease, and venous thrombosis.


title: Cardiovascular disease

text: The underlying mechanisms vary depending on the disease. It is estimated that dietary risk factors are associated with 53% of CVD deaths. Coronary artery disease, stroke, and peripheral artery disease involve atherosclerosis. This may be caused by high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes mellitus, lack of exercise, obesity, high blood cholesterol, poor diet, excessive alcohol consumption, and poor sleep, among other things. High blood pressure is estimated to account for approximately 13% of CVD deaths, while tobacco accounts for 9%, diabetes 6%, lack of exercise 6%, and obesity 5%. Rheumatic heart disease may follow untreated strep throat.


title: Cardiovascular disease

text: It is estimated that up to 90% of CVD may be preventable. Prevention of CVD involves improving risk factors through: healthy eating, exercise, avoidance of tobacco smoke and limiting alcohol intake. Treating risk factors, such as high blood pressure, blood lipids and diabetes is also beneficial. Treating people who have strep throat with antibiotics can decrease the risk of rheumatic heart disease. The use of aspirin in people, who are otherwise healthy, is of unclear benefit.


title: Cardiovascular disease

text: Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide except Africa. Together CVD resulted in 17.9 million deaths (32.1%) in 2015, up from 12.3 million (25.8%) in 1990. Deaths, at a given age, from CVD are more common and have been increasing in much of the developing world, while rates have declined in most of the developed world since the 1970s. Coronary artery disease and stroke account for 80% of CVD deaths in males and 75% of CVD deaths in females. Most cardiovascular disease affects older adults. In the United States 11% of people between 20 and 40 have CVD, while 37% between 40 and 60, 71% of people between 60 and 80, and 85% of people over 80 have CVD. The average age of death from coronary artery disease in the developed world is around 80, while it is around 68 in the developing world. CVD is typically diagnosed seven to ten years earlier in men than in women.


title: Cardiovascular disease

text: There are many cardiovascular diseases involving the blood vessels. They are known as vascular diseases.


title: Cardiovascular disease

text: There are many risk factors for heart diseases: age, sex, tobacco use, physical inactivity, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, excessive alcohol consumption, unhealthy diet, obesity, genetic predisposition and family history of cardiovascular disease, raised blood pressure (hypertension), raised blood sugar (diabetes mellitus), raised blood cholesterol (hyperlipidemia), undiagnosed celiac disease, psychosocial factors, poverty and low educational status, air pollution, and poor sleep. While the individual contribution of each risk factor varies between different communities or ethnic groups the overall contribution of these risk factors is very consistent. Some of these risk factors, such as age, sex or family history/genetic predisposition, are immutable; however, many important cardiovascular risk factors are modifiable by lifestyle change, social change, drug treatment (for example prevention of hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes). People with obesity are at increased risk of atherosclerosis of the coronary arteries.


title: Cardiovascular disease

text: Cardiovascular disease in a person's parents increases their risk by ~3 fold, and genetics is an important risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. Genetic cardiovascular disease can occur either as


title: Cardiovascular disease

text: a consequence of single variant (Mendelian) or polygenic influences. There are more than 40 inherited cardiovascular disease that can be traced to a single disease-causing DNA variant, although these conditions are rare. Most common cardiovascular diseases are non-Mendelian and are thought to be due to hundreds or thousands of genetic variants (known as single nucleotide polymorphisms), each associated with a small effect.


title: Cardiovascular disease

text: Age is the most important risk factor in developing cardiovascular or heart diseases, with approximately a tripling of risk with each decade of life. Coronary fatty streaks can begin to form in adolescence. It is estimated that 82 percent of people who die of coronary heart disease are 65 and older. Simultaneously, the risk of stroke doubles every decade after age 55.


title: Cardiovascular disease

text: Multiple explanations are proposed to explain why age increases the risk of cardiovascular/heart diseases. One of them relates to serum cholesterol level. In most populations, the serum total cholesterol level increases as age increases. In men, this increase levels off around age 45 to 50 years. In women, the increase continues sharply until age 60 to 65 years.


title: Cardiovascular disease

text: Aging is also associated with changes in the mechanical and structural properties of the vascular wall, which leads to the loss of arterial elasticity and reduced arterial compliance and may subsequently lead to coronary artery disease.


title: Cardiovascular disease

text: Men are at greater risk of heart disease than pre-menopausal women. Once past menopause, it has been argued that a woman's risk is similar to a man's although more recent data from the WHO and UN disputes this. If a female has diabetes, she is more likely to develop heart disease than a male with diabetes.


title: Cardiovascular disease

text: Coronary heart diseases are 2 to 5 times more common among middle-aged men than women. In a study done by the World Health Organization, sex contributes to approximately 40% of the variation in sex ratios of coronary heart disease mortality. Another study reports similar results finding that sex differences explains nearly half the risk associated with cardiovascular diseases One of the proposed explanations for sex differences in cardiovascular diseases is hormonal difference. Among women, estrogen is the predominant sex hormone. Estrogen may have protective effects on glucose metabolism and hemostatic system, and may have direct effect in improving endothelial cell function. The production of estrogen decreases after menopause, and this may change the female lipid metabolism toward a more atherogenic form by decreasing the HDL cholesterol level while increasing LDL and total cholesterol levels.


title: Cardiovascular disease

text: Among men and women, there are differences in body weight, height, body fat distribution, heart rate, stroke volume, and arterial compliance. In the very elderly, age-related large artery pulsatility and stiffness are more pronounced among women than men. This may be caused by the women's smaller body size and arterial dimensions which are independent of menopause.


title: Cardiovascular disease

text: Cigarettes are the major form of smoked tobacco. Risks to health from tobacco use result not only from direct consumption of tobacco, but also from exposure to second-hand smoke. Approximately 10% of cardiovascular disease is attributed to smoking; however, people who quit smoking by age 30 have almost as low a risk of death as never smokers.


title: Cardiovascular disease

text: Insufficient physical activity (defined as less than 5 x 30 minutes of moderate activity per week, or less than 3 x 20 minutes of vigorous activity per week) is currently the fourth leading risk factor for mortality worldwide. In 2008, 31.3% of adults aged 15 or older (28.2% men and 34.4% women) were insufficiently physically active.


title: Cardiovascular disease

text: The risk of ischemic heart disease and diabetes mellitus is reduced by almost a third in adults who participate in 150 minutes of moderate physical activity each week (or equivalent). In addition, physical activity assists weight loss and improves blood glucose control, blood pressure, lipid profile and insulin sensitivity. These effects may, at least in part, explain its cardiovascular benefits.


title: Cardiovascular disease

text: High dietary intakes of saturated fat, trans-fats and salt, and low intake of fruits, vegetables and fish are linked to cardiovascular risk, although whether all these associations indicate causes is disputed. The World Health Organization attributes approximately 1.7 million deaths worldwide to low fruit and vegetable consumption. Frequent consumption of high-energy foods, such as processed foods that are high in fats and sugars, promotes obesity and may increase cardiovascular risk. The amount of dietary salt consumed may also be an important determinant of blood pressure levels and overall cardiovascular risk. There is moderate quality evidence that reducing saturated fat intake for at least two years reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease. High trans-fat intake has adverse effects on blood lipids and circulating inflammatory markers, and elimination of trans-fat from diets has been widely advocated. In 2018 the World Health Organization estimated that trans fats were the cause of more than half a million deaths per year. There is evidence that higher consumption of sugar is associated with higher blood pressure and unfavorable blood lipids, and sugar intake also increases the risk of diabetes mellitus. High consumption of processed meats is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, possibly in part due to increased dietary salt intake.


title: Cardiovascular disease

text: The relationship between alcohol consumption and cardiovascular disease is complex, and may depend on the amount of alcohol consumed. There is a direct relationship between high levels of drinking alcohol and cardiovascular disease. Drinking at low levels without episodes of heavy drinking may be associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, but there is evidence that associations between moderate alcohol consumption and protection from stroke are non-causal. At the population level, the health risks of drinking alcohol exceed any potential benefits.


title: Cardiovascular disease

text: Untreated celiac disease can cause the development of many types of cardiovascular diseases, most of which improve or resolve with a gluten-free diet and intestinal healing. However, delays in recognition and diagnosis of celiac disease can cause irreversible heart damage.


title: Cardiovascular disease

text: A lack of good sleep, in amount or quality, is documented as increasing cardiovascular risk in both adults and teens. Recommendations suggest that Infants typically need 12 or more hours of sleep per day, adolescent at least eight or nine hours, and adults seven or eight. About one-third of adult Americans get less than the recommended seven hours of sleep per night, and in a study of teenagers, just 2.2 percent of those studied got enough sleep, many of whom did not get good quality sleep. Studies have shown that short sleepers getting less than seven hours sleep per night have a 10 percent to 30 percent higher risk of cardiovascular disease.