BOOKS BY M.M. AFRAH

TARGET: VILLA SOMALIA,
MOGADISHU: HELL ON EARTH,
THE SOMALI TRAGEDY,
THE GANG RAPE OF A NATION.

COMMENTS & REVIEWS

"If there is any doubts Somali dictator Mohamed Siyad Barre ignited and fanned the flames of the civil war which delivered many of his countrymen to the jaws of starvation and death, then the Somali Tragedy quickly dispels such doubts."

The Weekly Review,
Nairobi, Kenya.

"I found congenial colleague in M.M. Afrah, Reuters long time correspondent in the city, who had survived both the destruction of his own home and the personal tragedy of his son's death, and continues to file stories to his Bureau throughout the civil war.

Mogadishu was a place of war. Foreign journalists who went there encountered dangers and witnessed horror and were glad to get away. It takes much longer to understand what that suffering means. To Somali journalist, like Afrah, this was their life, their people."

James Schofield,
SILENT OVER AFRICA,
Stories of War and Genocide.
Sidney, Australia.

"It reads like a movie but it is reality. No horrifying and gory account of Africa's perennial holocaust has been published in recent years. Mr. Afrah's book is compulsory reading for all those who care about humanity."

Simon Sossion,
The Sunday Times, Nairobi, Kenya.

"Although this story has dominated world news, only one man reveals the truth behind the headlines. As doyen of journalists in Somalia, only Mr. Afrah knows how wild, how bizarre, how devastating the civil war in Somalia really is."

The Kenya Times,
Nairobi, Kenya.

"The author accomplished and well-written work gives great insight in the tragedy that is Somalia. The author manages to extrapolate from the chaos some 2. semblance of reason and motivation from the situation in Somalia, giving the reader at least some sort of understanding.

I like the author's approach wherein he has achieved a good balance between the macroscopic overview and more individual personal experiences. Mr. Afrah writes very well and sometimes the narrative reads as smoothly as that of a good novel.

A great deal of research must have been done to provide such a detailed picture of the Somalia situation and the information and observation is communicated with a literary style that is lucid, cogent and thoroughly accessible to the reader.

It is rare to read a journalistic manuscript which manages to evoke events so vividly, with clarity. An engaging work."

Ed Beerbohn,
Non-fiction Editor, Excalibur Press, London.

"It is an eyewitness account of Mogadishu's fall to the guerrillas of the United Somali Congress (USC) as told by a man who went through it. The book depicts the civil war in Somalia and triggered off by the atrocious regime of the tyrant, General Mohamed Siad Barre. The book reveals the devastating effects of the factional fighting which sparked off in Somalia hot on the heels of General Barre's fall. Mr. Afrah gives us a daily account of the doom, death and destruction visited on Mogadishu by the militia."

Dan Mbura,
The East African Standard,
Nairobi, Kenya.

Click here for this book: THE SOMALI TRAGEDY