(CNN) After years of militant and military control, the Somali national stadium in Mogadishu will return to a place for sports.

The stadium had been occupied by the Islamic militant group Al-Shabaab before it was taken over by troops from the African Union's peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM) in 2011.

AMISOM forces have used the stadium as an operating base ever since.

At a handover ceremony on Tuesday, AMISOM and Somali officials toured the war-torn stadium and invited the nation's youth to come and play.

Today's handover ceremony at Mogadishu Stadium it gives our youth & sports an opportunity for youth to use the Stadium pic.twitter.com/7Q3zvvby3z — Abdirahman O. Osman (@engyarisow) August 28, 2018

"Today's handover ceremony at Mogadishu Stadium it gives our youth & sports an opportunity for youth to use the Stadium," Mogadishu Mayor Abdirahman O. Osman said in a tweet.

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