 Tradition and old records assert that southern Somalia , including the Mogadishu area , was historically inhabited by hunter @-@ gatherers . These were later joined by Cushitic <unk> @-@ <unk> , who would go on to establish local <unk> . During its medieval Golden Age , Mogadishu was ruled by the Muzaffar dynasty , a vassal of the Ajuran Sultanate . It subsequently fell under the control of an assortment of local <unk> and polities , most notably the Geledi Sultanate . The city later became the capital of Italian Somaliland ( 1889 @-@ 1936 ) in the colonial period . After the Somali Republic became independent in 1960 , Mogadishu became known and promoted as the White Pearl of the Indian Ocean . After the ousting of the Siad Barre regime in 1991 and the ensuing civil war , various militias fought for control of the city , later to be replaced by the Islamic Courts Union in the mid @-@ 2000s . The ICU thereafter splintered into more radical groups , notably Al @-@ Shabaab , which fought the Transitional Federal Government ( 2004 @-@ 2012 ) and its AMISOM allies . With a change in administration in late 2010 , government troops and their military partners had succeeded in forcing out Al @-@ Shabaab by August 2011 . Mogadishu has subsequently experienced a period of intense reconstruction . 
