MOGADISHU, SOMALIA — His makeshift art gallery survived warlords, gangsters and Islamic zealots during Somalia’s 16-year civil war. But when the transitional government took charge of Mogadishu, the artist known as Happy got two hours’ notice that his tiny shop was to be torn down.
As friends raced to salvage his collection of paintings depicting Somalia’s years of anarchy, government troops swept away scores of commercial squatters who had been operating in tin-roofed shacks along the capital’s oldest shopping avenue. for more click here