Inferno devastates market in Somaliland’s capital

“The town has never witnessed such a massive calamity,” the city’s mayor Abdikarim Ahmed Moge told reporters.

“This place was the economic centre of Hargeisa and even though the firefighters did their best to contain the fire, the market is destroyed.”

The market – the biggest open-air market in the city – was a hub of activity with hundreds of small businesses.

Somaliland has a high rate of unemployment and the market was a lifeline for many poor families who depended on it to make a living. The fire happened just a few hours after the month of Ramadan began, when food business traditionally booms.

Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi said the fire had destroyed goods worth millions of dollars.