‘It’s like we went bankrupt overnight’: poorest Somalis suffer as piles of worthless shillings mount up

Muse Omar Jama, 49, in his Mogadishu office, beside stacks of banknotes. He complains that a decree that the shilling must be accepted is not being enforced. Photograph: Mohamed Gabobe

As US troops withdrew from Somalia in the spring of 1994, a teenaged Muse Omar Jama began working as an exchange trader in Mogadishu’s Bakara market. More than three decades later, he still does the same job, but wonders for how much longer.

Jama, 49, sits in a plastic chair in the one-room office he shares with other traders. The auto-rickshaws speed by outside, but inside is quiet; the noise of bargaining has faded and the traders exchange few words between themselves.