It's certainly developing, slowly but it undeniably is. Even in a smaller city like Bosaso... when I went there during the summers when I was a little boy there was no bottled water (only occasional imports) and we had to drink well water contained in baggies; all electrical power was intermittent and only lasted some parts of the day; and the town was so tiny that you could see the entire night sky come sundown which was beautiful.
When I was there last year at the age of 28? It had probably more than quadrupled in size, being large enough for the night sky to be as bereft of stars as any modern city; they now also had stable power all throughout the city throughout the day; and there were actual local industries begining to burgeon enough for there to be bottled water plants just outside the city and for bottled and treated water to be easily available. What it was like now vs just the 2005-2010 period is night and day. If it keeps up this pace I will once again be taken aback in 10-15 years.
And this is borderline boony town Bosaso. Some of the nicest areas of Xamar or Hargeyso would shock you in terms of their development standard. The houses can be luxurious at a first world standard.
Somalis are a beautifully resilient people, wallahi. Even in the absence of a truly functioning and reliable central government the amount of stuff they've managed to get together and develop deserves a salute. Waa dad gob leh.
They should see how Garowe the capital is developing as well
In another thread some time ago i was arguing how Somali towns and cities rarely if never develop into slums the way you see in Ethiopia, Kenya or South Africa.
I showed before and after picture of the city of Borama
This is how it looked like in the late 80s, it was more like a small baren tuulo if anything and hardly populated.
How it looks like in the year of 2020, from facebook.
People don't seem to realize that Somalis did all of this on their own with no real foreign investment or aid money and in the midst of harsh economic sanctions. That's why developments have been slow.
But we are in a better situation now than before the economic sanctions and arms embargo are lifted, they are rebuilding their economic, political and trade ties, there is increase in investments, democratization etc and blue ocean economy and the oil/gas resource revenues
Seeing how small towns can develop into highly populated vibrant cities in just a span of a few years. I don't think it will even take 20 or 30 years for Somalia to be a fully developed country. I said that it will take 10 years and in 5 years we will start noticing the major differences