The Catholic priest came to Mogadishu in 1946, holding mass and communion for a stalwart remnant of the former Italian colony. By the 1980s his flock consisted of some two thousand Italians, a few Filipino nuns, a handful of devout Somalis and the occasional sunburned tourist looking for confession.
Forbidden to spread his faith in the predominately Muslim country, the bishop was tolerated by the Siad Barre regime for his work in finding land and housing for displaced families and supporting humanitarian efforts with the Catholic relief agency Caritas. And according to one former USAID official, the priest preoccupied himself with ensuring that aid projects were simple enough to be sustained by local communities long after the aid workers had left.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s Bishop Colombo and his cathedral represented one of the few remaining links to Somalia’s former colonial master and the West, proving a useful conduit for aid and development assistance during the cold war years.
However, by the late 1980s Barre’s fortunes and mental fortitude were spiralling downwards. As rival groups grew stronger and war spread throughout the country, Barre’s hold onto power was at a tipping point. In Mogadishu, one of his last bastions of full control, Barre feared rebellion and targeted the Isaak and Hawiye clans with his infamous ‘Red Beret’ body guards.
The Assassination of Salvatore Colombo and the July 14 Massacre
The church’s demise and the death of Salvatore Colombo is enveloped in the events that signaled the end of the dictator’s control over Mogadishu and the downfall of his regime.
On the evening of Sunday the ninth of July 1989, unknown assassins entered the cathedral and opened fire on Salvatore Colombo, murdering the 66 year old Catholic priest.
The government quickly responded by putting a bounty out on the killers, blaming radical Islamists for murdering Bishop Colombo. However, according to rights group Human Rights Watch there was widespread suspicion the government’s forces had been responsible for the killing, and many believed the order to kill had come from the Villa Somalia – the presidential palace – itself.
On Thursday the 13th, a number of Muslim leaders suspected of involvement in the assassination were rounded up and imprisoned by government security forces. Yet almost half of those arrested were political targets – the son of a former president, a defence lawyer from a high profile national security trial and a senior religious figure.
By Friday local residents began protesting the arrests, but the demonstrations turned violent as Barre’s Red Beret forces opened fire on a crowd leaving a mosque, and up to 400 people were killed in what became known as the ‘July 14 Massacre’ that followed.
Throughout Friday night and into the next day witnesses told of government forces looting houses, arresting men and raping women in a campaign of violence against the predominately Hawiye clan community. And in apparent retaliation for casualties suffered by security forces during the violence, 46 men from the Isaak clan were also arrested and executed at a local beach on Saturday. It was clear that the security forces were clamping down on any possible dissent by supporters of rival opposition groups.
These events, sparked by the murder of Bishop Colombo, pushed the Barre regime over a precipice. The capital city had been one of the dictator’s last strongholds, yet by cracking down on Hawiyes and Isaaks in Mogadishu in an apparent attempt to maintain control, whatever support that had remained for the president throughout the last tumultuous decade was gone.
Support from the West had finally dissolved too. Campaigning in US Congress following the July 14 Massacre saw much needed funds for the Somali government quietly diverted to other African countries, and a shift in US policy away from the Barre regime. A US government report on the situation in Somalia later that year also stated there was ‘…no evidence that the July 9 killing of the Catholic Bishop of Mogadishu was religiously motivated’.
Within 18 months the dictator had abandoned the capital and his army was disbanded. Mogadishu with its grand cathedral now remained for others to fight over in the vacuum left by ‘Comrade Siad’ and his Red Berets.
St Francis and His Sheep
Yet perhaps the cathedral is continuing the work of Bishop Salvatore Colombo in Mogadishu. The cathedral and its grounds are now home to many Somalis who moved to Mogadishu during the devastating famine of 2011. The church provides space and shelter for these landless and destitute Somalis, the same people Bishop Colombo was once renowned for helping.
Brightly coloured makeshift shelters cram around the church and IDPs use the cathedral simultaneously as a laundry, toilet, a rubbish tip and a playground.
Children run in and out of the building’s crumbling pillars while St Francis and his sheep watch over them as they play.