Abdihakim Shire a father of six was gunned down after trying to build a mosque on property belonging to his father

MOGADISHU, Somalia Aug 5 2012 (Garowe Online) – A Somali British citizen was gunned down in Mogadishu after he traveled to the city to build a mosque on his fathers’ property, which had been taken over by squatters after his family fled the civil war in 1991, Garowe Online reports.

Abdihakim Mohamud Khalif Shire, a father of two sons and four stepchildren, was killed in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, mid-July after he traveled from London to Mogadishu to return property which was confiscated by squatters who stayed behind in Mogadishu during the civil war.

According to Mr. Shire’s family, he had gone to the city and was in the process of returning his family’s property when he had been gunned down in the capital Monday evening July 16.

According to the family of Mr. Shire, the family gathered in Mogadishu and decided to regain their property and build a mosque on the land. However a member of the squatters’ family had refused to return the property.

The squatter threatened the Shire family, who in turn decided to give up pursuing the property. According to the Shire family, the squatter fatally shot Abdihakim Shire even after the family had decided to disregard the squatted property.      

The family of the gunman, who shot Abdihakim, returned the property to the family after the cold blooded murder. Astonishingly the shooter was forgiven by Abdihakim’s father Mohamud Khalif, a religious man who lost his son a few days before the holy month of Ramadan.  

Mogadishu house owners who escaped the civil war and returned to war-ravaged Mogadishu, have said that the process of returning or being compensated for land or housing that has been taken from them in the civil war is a long and sometimes hopeless process.

Fatima Ali, a resident of Toronto Canada who spoke to Garowe Online, said that she had to spend close to 10,000 US dollars in bribes and incentives to return her home that her deceased husband owned.

“We had to pay clan elders and neighborhood leaders around $ 10,000 just to get back what was rightfully ours,” said Fatima.

According to home owners, the incentives are given to negotiators who won’t guarantee that your home will be returned.

“Sometimes the home had been sold several times so you cannot hold the current resident responsible for returning your home. He feels like you are also taking what’s rightfully his,” said Fatima.

The risk of upsetting or clashing with squatters’ of the property is always present, according to Mohamed Abdi a resident of Bossaso, who gave up trying to return his property in Mogadishu.

“I was receiving random phone calls and people threatening me, I couldn’t cope with that, so I quit trying to get it back,” said Mr. Abdi.

In a report by IRIN which referred to Mogadishu local authorities who claimed that “80 percent of the homes squatted during the war had been restored to their rightful owners.”

However former residents of Mogadishu beg to differ with that record, despite IRIN’s count of one million people returning to Mogadishu.

“I can speak for five families in my neighborhood alone, that till this day have not been returned their property,” said Amina Osman a resident of Leicester’s St. Mathews neighborhood.

Somalis, who lost their property during the extended civil war, are still skeptic of the weak UN backed Somali government, despite their initiative to return squatted property to rightful owners.

“I think the Somali government’s capability of returning property to rightful owners is very weak, they have returned government property but have been uninspiring in returning property of former residents. Maybe when I see people like me getting their property back, I’ll believe their initiative” explained Amina.

Some have stopped thinking about returning their lost property after seeing the cold blooded murder of Abdihakim, GO asked Mohamed Abdi if he would in the near future try to regain his property and why?

“After the murder of Abdihakim, I have decided to not pursue any of my property in Mogadishu. It’s not worth my life. I believe that his killing was a message from other squatters as well, the message was to stay away from property lost in the war” said Mr. Abdi.

GAROWE ONLINE