They had to dodge not only of the gangs of thugs and gunmen who today are uncrowned kings in what was once the nation-state of Somalia, but were also forced to make countless detours to escape floodwaters covering large parts of Southern Somalia caused by unseasonably heavy storms spawned by the El Nino phenomenon. They finally reached Bosaso, a sleepy village of 5,000 people just a few years ago, but today a sprawling, chaotic frontier town of 100,000. Bosaso has become the unofficial gateway to Yemen for thousands of Somalis so traumatized by the unending conflict in which possibly hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, they are willing to face one of the most dangerous journeys in the world across the Bab al Mandab straits to reach Yemen. The monsoon season briefly interrupted this taffic in human cargo, but local authorities reported recently that three or four trucks a day were again pulling into Bosaso from Mogadishu and other points south, loaded with fleeing Somalis. She cannot swim and neither can her three children, but she insists, I have to take the risk.
All hope is gone.
The militia was coming and robbing everything where I worked, he said. I decided to go to Yemen. Hawa Mohamed Osman also fled her hometown to escape the gunmen. Last year, one boat foundered off Bosaso and bodies washed up on the shore for days afterwards. Earlier this year, an American naval ship, the USS Saturn, recovered some of the 180 bodies from a smuggling ship that sank nearby.