Published: June 5, 2026 • 6:42 AM IST · Updated: June 5, 2026 • 7:21 AM ISTBy TheBriefWire Editorial Team
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Mogadishu, Somalia – Mustafa, 33, dreads election time in Somalia.
He drives a bajaj — a three-wheeled taxi — and says that when tensions rise, as they always do when polls are near, the whole city feels it, and drivers like him are among the first.
On Wednesday, he was passing through the Hawl Wadaag district when heavy gunfire between government and opposition forces erupted all around him.
“I couldn’t even think.
Everyone was shouting and running for their lives, and we all fled from the bullets,” he told Al Jazeera.