Internet Cafe opens in Mogadishu

The first internet cafe opened its doors in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on 14 April. Da'ud Muhammad Mahmud of Somali Technologies, told IRIN that the firm had opened the cafe near the Olympic hotel, close to the Bakaara market, Mogadishu's main market. "We decided to open the cafe when we realised that only a small group of people had access to the internet in the city," Da'ud said.

He said the cafe would provide two core services, consisting of a normal internet service and an e-mail service, and was open from local time 0700 to 2100. The e-mail service was aimed at "the elderly and less educated who want to send mail to their relatives, but cannot use the system", Da'ud told IRIN. Somali Technologies is providing staff in the cafe who will type messages and send them for those who cannot do so themselves.