The Country That Isn't

When commercial airlines in East Africa announced flights to Somaliland recently, airport police in Hargeisa, the breakaway republic's capital, realized they would need a metal detector to screen passengers and luggage. Such equipment is rare in Africa's impoverished Horn, and expensive to import. Mine detectors, on the other hand, are all too plentiful. "It does the job just the same," says a customs official, buzzing a departing visitor with a United Nations-donated detector that he carefully switches off between passengers to save battery power. "People shouldn't be put off. We are happy to have more visitors. If you want to come,...