Full article in PDF format
When Mohammed Ibrahim Yassin, the chief executive of Daallo Airlines, describes his company as providing a “lifeline” to Somalis, he is not exaggerating.
“There was a time when there were no money transfers, no telephones, no postal system – we were everything for the country,” the airline boss recalled. “We were the link to the outside world. We transported not only people, but goods, money, medicine. It was quite a history. And still we are playing that role.”
Established in 1991, the same year that Soviet-backed dictator Siad Barre lost his grip on power, Daallo found opportunity in the declaration of independence by the north-western province of Somaliland...