Somalia: The Build Up to Chaos - Part Two

Here Lee Taylor completes his examination of Somalia's recent and troubled history, looking in particular at outside attempts at intervention.

The UN, US and International Financial Institutions (IFI’s) sought to intervene in collapsed Somalia at various times during the 1990s. However, their task was made decidedly difficult without a government to impose their policies or accept their aid efforts whether it was loans or aid. Civil conflict and societal break-up induced a devastating famine for much of 1991 and 1992, causing mass internal displacement and an estimated 300,000 deaths. A UN peacekeeping force was assigned to Somalia in December 1992, but faced greater violent resistance than expected from militias’ armed with Cold War arsenal. Moreover, there was the added difficulty of exercising neutrality in civil conflict.

The United Nations involvement in humanitarian relief within Somalia was radically altered in 1992 due to civil conflict. The Security Council established a UN intervention force UNSOMI to monitor a ceasefire in Mogadishu. Mission aims for UNSOMI was to provide protection and a secure working environment for United Nations “personnel, equipment and supplies at the seaports and airports in Mogadishu and to escort deliveries of humanitarian supplies to distribution centres in and around Mogadishu".

In August 1993 UNSOMI was enlarged to administer such services throughout all of Somalia. Following little success in the midst of large scale civil conflicts the Security Council authorised the forming of UNITAF (Unified Task Force) to ensure the safe delivery of humanitarian assistance while UNSOMII was later established in March 1993 to disarm and reconcile the internal conflicts within Somalia and install law and order back into Somalia. However, there was little success as following the shooting down of two US Black Hawk helicopters and the global media portrayal of the horrific deaths of 18 US soldiers in 1993, US troops were withdrawn. Later the UN also withdrew from operations in Somalia claiming that there was no peace to keep. The poorly planned foreign intervention in Somalia in the early 1990s raised many questions about the developing role of various actors in global governance and humanitarian efforts. It would also have a radical impact upon UN and international interventionist policy in African states, leading to the non-intervention in the Rwandan genocide in 1994.

Since UN and US operations retreated from Somalia, difficulties in Somalia were largely ignored by the international community until the events of September 11th 2001. Prior to September 11th Somalia was portrayed by the world media as a collapsed state torn apart by tribal rivalry and corrupt warlords set on personal gain. Civil conflicts, social strife, and humanitarian atrocities became evidence for corruption and ethnic rivalry to such an extent that foreign powers remained unable to remedy, despite reports suggesting up to a million people had died in the time period.

The emergence of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) in the midst of the US led war on terror, has increased concerns within the West that Somalia was becoming a safe haven for Islamic fundamentalism ruled by a regime similar to that of the Taliban prior to intervention in Afghanistan. The US has acted on such fears, worried that Somalia will become a safe haven for terrorists intent on launching attacks upon the West as “events of September 11th have elevated the relevance of collapsed states into a central question for international security.” In May 2006 the Washington Post claimed that the US was secretly supporting warlords fighting against Islamic groups linked to the UIC in and around the capital Mogadishu. However, African researchers have criticised the Bush administration claiming that, “little was being done to support economic development initiatives that would provide alternative livelihoods to picking up a gun or following extremist ideologies.”

Attempts for the Restoration of Somalia

Since the turn of the century there has been a renewed attempt from the international community to restore order within Somalia. This has primarily been done through support for the establishment of a new Somali transitional government. In October 2000 newly appointed Prime Minister Ali Khalif Gelayashi announced his transitional government that was the first in Somalia since 1991. However, within months of the establishment of the government Somali rebels, with backing from Ethiopia had seized the Southern town of Garbaharey. Further damage was then done to the transitional government’s authority in April 2001when a number of Somali warlords announced their intentions to form their own national government in opposition to the transitional government. A year later warlords based in South West Somalia attempted to follow their counterparts in Somaliland and Puntland by declaring six regions to be autonomous from the transitional government to form a ‘South-Western Regional Government.’ After the failure of the previous transitional government a new transitional government was formed in 2004, headed by Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Ghedi, who was elected to the precarious task of restoring order and legitimate authority within Somalia. However, due to the volatile situation in Mogadishu and throughout much of Somalia it was not until June 2005 that the transitional government was able to return from exile in Kenya. Moreover, it was still unable to establish a parliament in Mogadishu due to warlord fighting, so after much dispute set-up parliament miles north of the capital in the town of Baidoa.

A further threat to Ghedi’s transitional government’s authority was seen by the rise of Islamic warlords mainly in South and central Somalia. Islamist warlords compromised government authority by gaining control of vast regions in the South including Mogadishu. The Islamic advance in Southern Somalia was only halted and forced to retreat due to the UN Security Council resolution 1725 outlining an endorsement of peace keeping strategy to prop up the transitional government in December 2006. Then later intervention by Ethiopia and the US, fearful of the formation of a radical Islamic state, forced Islamist warlords to abandon Mogadishu and concede their strongholds in southern Somalia.

A recent BBC report from January 1st 2007 declared, “It is unlikely that the transitional government would be able to fulfil that vacuum without the help of powerful clan leaders.” Underlining that since 1991 there has been 14 failed attempts to establish a central government in Somalia without key infrastructure such as government buildings or civil service. The last 15 years of warlord fighting has taken its’ toll on Somalia, destroying conventional differences between government and the populous, causing a radical transformation within Somali society. Such intra-state conflict has caused the breakdown of Somalia’s modern structures of power within political and civil society, which have since been replaced by distorted traditional structures of kinship and regional elites. This has been enveloped within much conflict intervention and rhetoric worldwide that views intra-state conflict and, importantly traditional civil authority to contradict liberal development moralities.


Written by Lee Taylor


Links & Resources:

BBC - Somalia Country Profile

BBC - "Somalia's Sudden Shift In Power"

Hii Dunia - "Somalia: The Build Up To Chaos - Part One"

People's Daily - "Somali Warlords to Establish National Representative Government"

Daily Telegraph - "Americans Kill al-Qa'eda Suspect in Somalia"