Nearly two months after Somalia got its first president and parliament in nearly a decade, the country's new government is having to operate from a hotel in the capital, Mogadishu. The country's new MPs are living and working from the hotel, both for their own security and because the civil war has left no government building intact. Somalia's new civilian leaders have been lobbying regional and Middle Eastern leaders hard for financial support. At the moment, Somalia's influential business community is the government's main financial backer.
Traders say that despite the prospect of taxes and duty, they welcome the new administration.
They carry boxes of batteries, yellow cooking-oil containers and sacks of flour which have been offloaded from cargo ships moored just offshore and brought to the beach in small barges. President Hassan faces daunting challenges This is a natural port and the entry-point for thousands of tons of goods which will soon be on sale in Mogadishu's markets and far beyond. It is also one huge duty-free zone. The business community, which has thrived during a decade of civil war, pays no taxes here. But with the formation of a government in Somalia this should change.