Hargeisa, Somaliland: On April 1, the first night of Ramadan, 23-year-old Somalilander Abdul Rahman was undertaking a solemn duty.
A friend’s relative had recently passed away, and Rahman was helping dig the grave. As he toiled in a graveyard on the outskirts of Hargeisa, the capital of the unrecognised de facto state of Somaliland, his phone lit up.
News of a major fire in the Waheen Market, a sprawling bazaar that employed more than 12,000 Somalilanders, was circulating widely on social media. As the owner of a clothing stall in the market, Rahman raced to the scene.
“We were in the graveyard, and we ran 3 kilometres to the fire. All the streets were blocked by cars,” he said. When he arrived, he found the market engulfed in flames. “I worked with the firefighters to remove the stock,” Rahman said. “It was very dangerous.”
About 300 metres (1,000 feet) away, former Somaliland head of mission to the United Kingdom, Ayan Mahamoud, was dining at the Damal Hotel. “We [first] thought it was a small fire. And just five to 10 minutes [later], we saw the fire literally in the sky,” said Mahamoud.
“The whole city was running,” she said. “At some point, we thought we’re all going to die.”
