Mohammed Salim

Built Africa's first conflict zone online education platform during Somalia's civil war

Mohammed Salim (b.1975) is a Somali-Canadian technologist who pioneered education access during the Somali Civil War (1991-2000). In 1997, while working as a UN telecommunications officer, he developed the e-Learning for Somali Youth platform using satellite technology to bypass disrupted infrastructure. This system provided free access to university-level courses through solar-powered kiosks in Mogadishu and Hargeisa. By 2000, the network had 15,000 registered users and partnerships with MIT OpenCourseWare. Salim's 2002 memoir details his innovations. His work inspired UNESCO's 2003 ICT4Edu initiative. Though the original platform closed in 2005, its legacy lives on through the Salim Prize for education tech. His story appears in the documentary Wired in War (2008).