by Layla Mahmood

The heat enveloped 20-year-old Mohamed, as he zig-zagged through the alleyways of Hargeisa. It was around noon, during the summer of 2019. The city was asleep for the daily siesta - shops, restaurants and offices were all closed - so it was a perfect time for anyone who needed to move around under the radar. Mohamed was secretly visiting his boyfriend, Ahmed, an act punishable by imprisonment and sometimes death in Somaliland.

Hargeisa is the capital of the self-declared state of Somaliland, which broke away from Somalia nearly 30 years ago. The courts enforce Islamic law, Sharia, which deems homosexuality illegal, so LGBT+ Somalis must conceal their sexuality. They live in fear of being exposed. For Mohamed, who says he is quite feminine, it was harder to pass as straight than for some others.

Mohamed and Ahmed began their usual romantic encounter behind closed doors, when, to their surprise, Ahmed's sister unexpectedly entered the room. She began yelling, waking up the whole house. Within minutes Mohamed was out of the door and hiding at a friend's home, where he received a chilling phone call from a well-wisher: "Don't come back home, they are preparing to kill you."

"The first time I realised there was something confusing about my sexuality, the desire, the genders that I like and don't like was when I was four or five years old," Mohamed says. Read more via BBC