Most of them are dead, and those who survived want to live. Hassan tells us that he made the mistake of traveling with guards in just one vehicle. Defense has to come from the escort car. Not five minutes later, we realize that we've lost our escort and pull to the side of the road. Once swarming with relief workers, Mogadishu these days is out of bounds for nearly all foreigners.
Journalists occasionally drop in, but the media horde is long gone.
Where once the city was a battleground for two main militias and their subclans, now at least five militias claim vaguely defined pockets as their own. Western intelligence agencies believe that Osama bin Laden, the Saudi exile who allegedly masterminded the bombings of U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania last year, visited Mogadishu seven months ago. The conventional wisdom is that he decided he'd be too easily betrayed there. Physical evidence of the once massive American presence is scarce. Few countries would have the stomach for that.