SOMALIA'S FIRST EVER DAIRY

STARTING A DAIRY in Mogadishu was not an obvious choice : Islamist bombs go off with a startling regularity, electricity is patchy and expensive and most Somalis don't even drink fresh cow's milk.

But Abdulkadir Mohammad Salad, 40, who spent most of his life as a refugee in Britain where he worked for a dairy, is convinced the business can work in his home country, where cattle abound yet tonnes of milk are imported every year.

''It is very difficult to invent in a hostile environment like Somalia in the first place and secondly, people here know very little about the dairy business,'' Salad told AFP at his small factory, where a stainless steel machine pumped milk into blue sachets.

As a result of  unsanitary handling of milk in the past, the country believes that cow's milk is dangerous for their health and prefer to drink camel milk or powdered milk,

Salad worked as a taxi driver before getting a job at a Dairy in Leicester. His wife and three children remained behind in the United Kingdom as he returned to to try and start a business in his home country.

Wasted Resources :  Surprised by the amount of cattle in the country, and the fact that aside from a few farmers selling raw, untested milk, there was no proper factory treating the product-

He and two colleagues decided to set up their own, called   Irman  Dairy, in 2017.

''Livestock is one of the  economic resources of Somalia......but tonnes of powdered milk are imported every year while our resources are wasted here, and few are benefiting,'' said Salad.

Located in Southern Mogadishu, Irman has to contend with constant security challenges in the capital, which affects both production and distribution.

The city is hit by  regular car  and suicide bombings by the AL-Qaeda-linked Shahbab Islamist group which has been fighting to overthrow the government for over a decade. [Agencies].