World Cultures: Somali Civil War

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There is no national government in Somalia. While parts of the north are relatively peaceful, including much of the self-declared “Republic of Somaliland,” interclan and interfactional fighting can flare up with little warning, and kidnapping, murder and other threats to foreigners can occur unpredictably in many regions.

The Somali Republic gained independence on July 1, 1960. Somalia was formed by the union of British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland, while French Somaliland became Djibouti. A socialist state was established following a coup led by Major General Muhammad Siad Barre. Rebel forces ousted the Barre regime in 1991, but turmoil, factional fighting, and anarchy ensued. The Somali National Movement (SNM) gained control of the north, while in the capital of Mogadishu and most of southern Somalia the United Somali Congress achieved control. Somalia has been without a stable central government since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre fled the country in 1991.

Subsequent fighting among rival faction leaders resulted in the killing, dislocation, and starvation of thousands of Somalis and led the United Nations to intervene militarily in 1992. In 1992, responding to the political chaos and humanitarian disaster in Somalia, the United States and other nations launched peacekeeping operations to create an environment in which assistance could be delivered to the Somali people. By March 1993, the potential for mass starvation in Somalia had been overcome, but the security situation remained fragile. On October 3, 1993 U.S. troops received significant causalities (19 dead over 80 others wounded) 2 in a battle with Somali gunmen. When the United States (in 1994) and the UN withdrew (in 1995) their forces from Somalia, after suffering significant casualties, order still had not been restored.

Conflict between rival warlords and their factions continued throughout the 1990s. No stable government emerged to take control of the country. The UN assisted Somalia somewhat with food aid but did not send peacekeeping troops into the country. In the late 1990s, relative calm began to emerge and economic development accelerated somewhat. The country was by no means stable, but it was improving. A transitional government emerged in 2000 but soon lost power. Somaliland and Puntland, two regions in the north broke away from the country and set up regional, semi-autonomous governments. They are not internationally recognized.

After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States began to take a more active role in Somalia’s affairs, fearing that the country had become a haven for terrorists. Other Western governments hoped to bring stability to Somalia for similar reasons. In January 2004, two dozen or so warlords reached a power-sharing agreement after talks in Kenya. This agreement called for a 275-member parliament. This Transitional Federal Government (TFG) was the 14th attempt at a government since 1991. Its head, Abdullah Yusuf originally called for African peacekeepers to restore order within Somalia but many Somalis feared invasion, especially by nearby Ethiopia. As of early October 20063, no AU or IGAD peacekeepers were scheduled to intervene.

In May 2006, heavy fighting broke out in Mogadishu between the non-TFG-affiliated Supreme Islamic Courts Union (ICU) and TFG warlords hoping to curry favor with the United States by fighting against supposed terrorist supporters. The ICU was formed in 2000 by former members of al-Ittihad al-Islamiya (AIAI), a group that fought along with the ethnically-Somali Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). AIAI and OLF forces sought the secession of the Ogaden region from Southern Ethiopia.

The TFG warlords, and a group is known as the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT), were widely believed to be receiving money from America. In June, the ICU seized control of Mogadishu and much of Southern Somalia, driving Yusuf’s TFG from Jowhar to Baidoa. As of July 2006, Yusuf’s government, with the backing of Ethiopia, still hoped to wrest power from the Islamists but had taken little action to do so. The ICU had pushed moderates aside and began to set up a conservative Islamic state. Yusuf has called for peacekeepers from the African Union since the fall of Mogadishu in June 2006, but many have feared that this could lead to further instability.

TFG and ICU leaders met in Khartoum in June 2006 for peace talks, but no deal was reached. It may have been difficult to reach an agreement with the ICU, as it was composed of 11 different clans and an asymmetrical power structure. TFG and ARPCT forces began mounting attacks on ICU locations in the town of Burahakaba on 9 October 2006. Burahakaba is strategically very important, as it is located approximately 50 km south of Baidoa on the road to Mogadishu. ICU Chairman, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, has stated that the Ethiopian army has fought along with TFG and ARPCT forces. Ethiopia has denied this claim. On 25 October, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said that Ethiopia was “technically at war” with the ICU.

He added that the conflict was not yet a “shooting war” and he preferred to avoid one. A contingent of Ethiopian troops, Zenawi concluded, would continue to assist and train forces of Somalia’s interim government. This commitment so exasperated any attempts at peace talks that the ICU and the interim government refused to meet face-to-face. On 11 November, a breakthrough seemed apparent when the ICU announced that it had reached a peace deal with the government. The government was represented by parliamentary speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan. Almost immediately the government declared the deal “irrelevant” because Adan did not have any permission or authority to negotiate.

On 23 November, Zenawi announced that Ethiopia was “ready for Islamist war.” The UIC responded in kind, saying that it was prepared to face Ethiopia. The situation escalated on the 28 th when Ethiopian troops engaged the UIC and fired rockets on Bandiradley, a strategic town north of Mogadishu. In response, the UIC ambushed an Ethiopian convoy and claimed it had killed 20 Ethiopians. A car bomb also went off in Baidoa, but the UIC denied any involvement. The same day, the Ethiopian parliament authorized “all legal and necessary steps against any invasion” by the UIC.

Since 1991, 350,000-1,000,000 Somalis have died because of the conflict.

References

“Military: Somalia Civil War”. 2008. Web.

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