The street cleaners of Mogadishu: Doing Somalia’s riskiest job

At night or early morning, female street cleaners say they do not like to wear high visibility jackets as that can attract robbers [Hamza Mohamed/Al Jazeera]

Mogadishu, Somalia – It is an hour before sunrise in downtown Mogadishu. The Somali capital is fast asleep with eerie silence hanging in the warm salty air blowing from the Indian Ocean.

Apart from a small group of women wearing dark-coloured clothes and flip-flops on Maka al-Mukarama road in the heart of the city, there is no other soul in sight. With few street lights working, the women blend almost perfectly into the pre-dawn darkness.