{"id":874,"date":"2011-05-20T09:27:28","date_gmt":"2011-05-20T09:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/?p=874"},"modified":"2011-05-20T09:41:03","modified_gmt":"2011-05-20T09:41:03","slug":"somalia-racing-against-all-the-odds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/2011\/05\/somalia-racing-against-all-the-odds\/","title":{"rendered":"Somalia: Racing against all the odds"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Every time Abdinasir Ibrahim pulls on his running shoes, he risks his life. In Somalia, training for the Olympics is a dangerous business, as I discovered.<\/p>\n

In an exclusive report for Channel4 News, I travelled to Mogadishu to meet the athletes who run daily along the “road of death” through the city, aware that at any time they could be shot by rebel gunmen or nervous security forces.<\/p>\n

Somalia has been devastated by two decades of war, with African Union forces from Uganda and Burundi helping protect a weak government, under attack from al-Shabab \u2013 a pro-al-Qaeda Islamist group who use suicide bombers and snipers as their main weapons.<\/p>\n

“The conflict between militiamen loyal to al-Shabab and those loyal to the government is causing a problem,” says Abninasir Ibrahim, in a masterly piece of under-statement. “Both groups are Somalis and I would love them to be united to save future generations.”<\/p>\n

Abdinasir \u2013 a 5,000 metre runner who competed in the Beijing Olympics \u2013 knows only too well the dangers of the civil war. His mother and two of his brothers are among those who have been killed in the fighting.<\/p>\n

“My wife was just at home when gunmen broke into the house and shot her dead,” says his father, Said Ibrahim. “They looted our belongings and left. She left six children behind \u2013 Abdinasir was the second youngest. A few years later, two of my other sons were also killed.”<\/p>\n

Olympic spirit <\/strong>But Abdinasir\u2019s spirit and determination to compete in next year\u2019s London Olympics typifies that of Somalia\u2019s dwindling band of surviving sportsmen.<\/p>\n

“When the civil war started, most of the athletes fled, others got injured because of the conflict,” says Ahmed Ali, the untrained volunteer who acts as coach to the national team. “One of them was shot in the back and paralysed.<\/p>\n

“We have faced so many difficulties. Athletes without morale. Our federation doesn\u2019t give financial support \u2013 just a moral one. Because the whole country has no money.”<\/p>\n

To get to the dusty sports ground the athletes use for their training, they have to jog along the main road through Mogadishu, past roadblocks of armed militia and military checkpoints, where suicide bombers are common and where dozens of civilians have been shot and killed.<\/p>\n

Filming the athletes on their early morning run to the sports ground, Jamal Osman saw at first hand how dangerous it could be.<\/p>\n

“The athletes started their usual run along the main road and sprinted past a group of nervous militiamen sat by a wall,” he reports. “Fearing a suicide attack, a man raised his AK47 rifle.<\/p>\n

“Then I heard shouting \u2013 \u2018we\u2019re sportsmen, we\u2019re sportsmen\u2019 \u2013 and the sound of a rifle being cocked. I threw my camera down. It was a terrifying moment. I genuinely thought they were going to be shot.”<\/p>\n

Even at their training ground, under police supervision, it is not safe \u2013 one sportsman was killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the gates to the compound. Government forces use it for summary executions. But it is all the athletes have.<\/p>\n

Abdinasir took Jamal Osman to the former National Athletic and Football Stadium in Mogadishu, built to host international competitions, but located in the middle of the war zone and left in ruins by the fighting that has gone on around \u2013 and through it.<\/p>\n

Bomb attack<\/p>\n

The VIP area was destroyed in a bomb attack on the Somali Prime Minister six years ago, in which 15 people were killed. Bullet cases litter the running track. But a dugout still stands, where \u2013 seven years ago \u2013 a 14-year-old Abdinasir scrawled a message, which survives to this day: “I love winning and one day I WILL be world champion”.<\/p>\n

“He loves sport and is a natural winner,” says his father. “He works very hard and is determined to achieve success. If he gets the support he needs, he will be the best in the world.”<\/p>\n

Abdinasir finished last in his 5,000 metre heat at the Beijing Olympics, but he is proud of what he has already achieved \u2013 and determined to do even better.<\/p>\n

“I realised in Beijing that our athletes were more important than our leaders, famous people or politicians,” he says. “They were not expecting to see athletes from Somalia. People from all over the world congratulated us for just taking part, but we wanted to represent out country.<\/p>\n

“If all goes well, I would like to come to London, carrying the whole Somali nation on my shoulders. I\u2019m hoping to be a medal winner \u2013 a world champion.”<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>Wararka Soomaaliya (Warsom.com)<\/span><\/em>(\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/strong>info@warsom.com<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/a> & <\/span><\/strong>webmaster@warsom.com)<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Mogadishu Somalia<\/p>\n

Webmaster: Max\u2019ud Max\u2019ed Daahir (Carab)<\/p>\n

Mogadishu Office<\/p>\n

+25-26-15514953\/+25-2699-995641<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every time Abdinasir Ibrahim pulls on his running shoes, he risks his life. In Somalia, training for the Olympics is a dangerous business, as I discovered. In an exclusive report for Channel4 News, I travelled to Mogadishu to meet the athletes who run daily along the “road of death” through the city, aware that at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[9,50],"class_list":["post-874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-ogeysiiska-iyo-iidhehyada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=874"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":878,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874\/revisions\/878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}