A massive fire tore through the main market in the city of Hargeisa in northern Somalia overnight, injuring about two dozen people and destroying hundreds of businesses, officials said on Saturday. Images posted on social media showed flames and huge billowing clouds of smoke in the night sky over the city, the capital of the…
The cause of the blaze that gutted the sprawling Waheen market — the lifeblood of the city and home to an estimated 2,000 shops and stalls — is not yet known. “This place was the economic centre of Hargeisa and even though the firefighters did their best to contain the fire, the market is destroyed.” Somaliland president Muse Bihi Abdi said during a visit to Waheen that about 28 people, nine of them women, were injured, but that so far no loss of life had been reported.