Like the warlords, both ministates boycotted the Djibouti peace conference and challenge the new President's claim to represent the entire country. The government in Mogadishu says it will not force the northerners into the nation but entice them back by building a federal system that allows each region a measure of autonomy. But big money from Western governments will be harder to come by. But once the cold war ended the money dried up. What followed made many donor nations wary of getting involved in Somalia again.
Gangs steal power lines, telephone cables and streetlights.
Last week, like vultures picking at the bones of a dead animal, men dug up the pipelines at the old oil refinery, carrying them away to sell. Electricity now comes from small generators, water from household tanks if you are rich or donkey-drawn carts if you are poor. Most people survive on money remitted by relatives abroad. The destruction is not only physical. The whole concept of a state has been distorted.