Nightfall In Mogadishu

by Veronica Li


Formats

Softcover
$11.95
Softcover
$11.95

Book Details

Language : English
Publication Date : 6/1/2001

Format : Softcover
Dimensions : 5x8
Page Count : 288
ISBN : 9781588202512

About the Book

We remember images of the dead body of an American marine dragged around the streets of Mogadishu. We remember the firefight with a Somali warlord that claimed the lives of eighteen Americans. But do we know what happened in Somalia, what caused the government to collapse, and why the U.S. government had to send in troops? Nightfall in Mogadishu tells the story of Somalia in a page-turning thriller. It portrays the pressures that have built up to the final explosion and cleverly weaves in pieces of history on the horn of Africa: the Somali nomadic lifestyle, colonial occupation and subsequent independence, and the rise of its dictator, Siad Barre, whose tactic of "divide and conquer" pushes already fractious clans into headlong collision.

Nightfall in Mogadishu also tells about the World Bank’s influence on the country and how the culture of aid dependence, nurtured by western countries to keep Somalia on their side of the Cold War, has fed a corrupt system. Instead of helping the country, donor funds have been misused to intensify the conflicts.

The story begins with the murder of the World Bank’s representative in Somalia. Susan Chen, an undercover CIA agent is sent to replace him. Her job is to ferret out the murderer and stop the terror he wreaks on the donor community. With the help of two Somalis she befriends, she unravels the conspiracy behind a series of murders of expatriate aid workers. But the ultimate goal of her assignment, saving the government from collapse, proves to be an impossible mission.


About the Author

Veronica Li has worked as the World Bank’s loan officer for Somalia in the 1980’s. The novel, Nightfall in Mogadishu, was inspired by her visits to Somalia before it fell into anarchy. During her thirteen-year career in the Bank, her assignments also took her to other parts of Africa as well as Asia. She is now retired and fictionalizing her travel adventures. Before joining the Bank, she was a journalist for the French news agency, Agence France-Presse, and later the Asian Wall Street Journal.