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Somalia Portraits
Mohammad Mohmud Ali, TFG Soldier
Somalia Report presents a new series of portraits of Somali citizens. With photographer Jason Florio, Somalia Report spent time with the people of Mogadishu to learn more about their daily lives.
©Jason Florio/Virginia Quarterly Review
Mohammad Mohmud Ali, TFG Soldier
"I am in the security detail of the Chairman of Dharkinley District of Mogadishu. The Transitional Federal Government pays me $100 each month. For twenty years, I've grown up with war, but only realized that our country was at war when I was about 12 because fighting was normal to me. I have been around war everyday of my life and I still am. I have been in many battles. The worst moment was when al-Shabaab threw a grenade at me and killed many of my friends. I work as a soldier because I want to know what peace is like. I have never lived in peace." Mohammad Mohmud Ali, 22.