Walk through Garowe today, and you see it everywhere. Young men and women sitting on broken chairs outside small tea stalls. The sun beats down on their tired faces. They sip tea that costs 30 cents only thing they can afford. They are not talking about dreams or business ideas. They talk about survival. How to get through another day without a job, without hope, without help. This is the life of Puntland’s youth. Unemployment and poverty are not problems—they are reality. And the government? It looks the other way. Leaders speak of progress, but nothing reaches these streets.
Young people between 18 and 25 are leaving. They are leaving their towns, their families, their homes. Not for adventure. They are running from a life that has nothing to offer. Jobs have disappeared. Projects that used to support them are gone. What they take with them is the future of Puntland itself. Those who stay, mostly aged 25 to 35, face another fight. Jobs are few. Money is tight. The few opportunities left are controlled by a small circle close to the presidency. Merit does not matter. Connections do. The rest are shut out. Dreams are crushed. Ambition fades.
Small businesses that once gave hope; cafés, tech hubs, shops have closed. Empty stores stand as silent witnesses to a generation in despair. In their place, fragile tea stalls appear. Young people gather there, sharing stories of struggle, not success. A word has taken over Puntland: “Shiid.” It means broke. But it also means stuck, forgotten, failed. It is the word of a generation whose dreams are gone, whose lives are idle, whose voices are ignored.
The government ignores this suffering. Sometimes it even mocks it. The president tells youth to “stop these finance ambitions.” No help. No solutions. No hope. Leadership has vanished, replaced by abandonment. Corruption is normal. Jobs go to family and friends. The few get rich, the many suffer. Even the state auditor warns of collapse. The system is broken.
The president focuses on himself, not the people. Wealth for elections, not for stability. This is not leadership. It is betrayal. Puntland is bleeding its youth. Faith in leaders is gone. Faith in home is gone. If this continues, Puntland will be remembered not for history or potential, but for one thing: Shiid. A state of despair, stuck, and forgotten.
Shiid State.
Garowe, Somalia
November 2024
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