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Somalia

Country in northeast Africa (the Horn of Africa), on the Indian Ocean, bounded northwest by Djibouti, west by Ethiopia, and southwest by Kenya.

Government

Since the overthrow of the Barre regime in 1991, the country has been in a state of near-anarchy, with no effective national government, rival warlords and clans disputing control, and regions declaring their independence or autonomy. In the northwest, Somaliland declared itself an independent republic in 1991. It has failed to secure international recognition, but has its own president. In the northeast, Puntland declared itself autonomous in 1998, as did Southwestern Somalia in 2002, and Jubaland in 2006. There is an internationally recognized Transitional Federal Government, which, in late 2006, with Ethiopia's military support wrested back control of substantial parts of the country from the radical Islamic Courts Union, which had controlled the capital, Mogadishu, in 2006. The Transitional Federal Government has a 275-member Transitional Federal Parliament, which includes 61 members from each of Somalia's four clans, and 31 seats allocated to minority clans, and which elects a federal president. It plans to establish a federal system based on Somalia's 18 autonomous regions, although Somaliland rejects a federal solution.

History

Somalia developed around Arab trading posts that grew into sultanates.

A British protectorate of Somaliland was established 1884–87, and Somalia, an Italian protectorate, in 1889–90. The latter was extended as a colony from 1925 and incorporated into Italian East Africa in 1936; it came under British military rule 1941–50, when as a United Nations trusteeship it was again administered by Italy.

Independence

Somalia became a fully independent republic in 1960 through a merger of the two former colonial territories, British and Italian Somaliland. From that date, Somalia was involved in disputes with its neighbours because of its insistence on the right of all Somalis to self-determination, wherever they have settled. This was frequently applied to those living in the Ogaden district of Ethiopia and in northeast Kenya. A dispute over the border with Kenya resulted in a break in diplomatic relations with Britain 1963–68. The dispute with Ethiopia led to an eight-month war in 1978, in which Somalia was defeated by Ethiopian troops assisted by Soviet and Cuban weapons and advisers. Some 1.5 million refugees entered Somalia, and guerrilla fighting continued in Ogaden until its secession in 1991. There was a rapprochement with Kenya in 1984 and, in 1986, the first meeting for ten years between the Somali and Ethiopian leaders.

The first president of Somalia was Aden Abdullah Osman, who was succeeded in 1967 by Dr Abdirashid Ali Shermarke of the Somali Youth League, which had become the dominant political party. In October 1969, President Shermarke was assassinated, and the army seized power under Maj-Gen Muhammad Siad Barre. He suspended the 1960 constitution, dissolved the national assembly, banned all political parties, and formed a military government. In 1970 he declared Somalia a socialist state. His government invested in public works and in a successful campaign to improve literacy.

One-party state and Ogaden war

In 1976, the junta transferred power to the newly created Somalia Revolutionary Socialist Party, and three years later the constitution for a one-party state was adopted. Over the next few years Barre consolidated his position by increasing the influence of his own clan and reducing that of his northern rival, despite often violent opposition.

In 1977–78 Somalia fought a war against neighbouring Ethiopia in support of Somalis living in Ogaden province in Ethiopia, who sought self-determination. After initial military success, the Somali army was defeated by Ethiopia, who received Cuban and Soviet Union military support.

Opposition and repression

Military defeat damaged the prestige of the Barre regime, which became increasingly authoritarian as opposition to it grew. In 1982 the anti-government Somali National Movement (SNM) was formed in the north. Oppressive countermeasures by the government led to an estimated 50–60,000 civilian deaths by 1990 and 400,000 refugees fleeing to Ethiopia. All post was censored in the north, identity cards were necessary for travel within the country, and contact with foreigners was discouraged.

Although Barre was re-elected in 1987, the SNM had taken control of large parts of the north and east of the country. In riots in June 1989 an estimated 400 people were killed by government troops; the government claimed only 24 people died.

Rebel coup and outbreak of civil war

Barre survived an attempted coup in January 1991. However, with rebel forces advancing rapidly, he fled the capital and was replaced as president by Ali Mahdi Muhammad. Civil war broke out across the country and, in May 1991, the area in the northwest which had once been British Somaliland announced its secession, as the Somaliland Republic, with Abdel-Rahman Ahmed Ali, leader of the SNM, as its president (replaced by Muhammad Ibrahim Egal in 1993).

The four rival Somali factions (United Somali Congress (USC), Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF), Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM), and Somali Democratic Movement (SDM), signed a ceasefire in June 1991, but this failed to hold. Fierce fighting broke out in September 1991 and continued, and by the end of the year 20,000 people had been killed or injured. By April 1992 ex-president Barre abandoned his attempt to return to power and took his family and the remnants of his army into exile in Kenya.

Measures to arrest famine

The civil war disrupted agriculture and food distribution, contributing to widespread famine in 1992, affecting a quarter of Somalia's six million people. The UN Security Council authorized a peacekeeping operation, called UNOSOM, and the USA organized its largest relief operation to Africa, ‘Operation Restore Hope’. Other Western nations also contributed to the airlift and the UN sent troops to guard the food shipments. This helped to alleviate the famine, but relief efforts were hampered by the political instability. In December 1992, a contingent of 1,800 US Marines landed in Mogadishu, under UN auspices, and seized control of the harbour and airport. They were the first of a planned US military presence of 30,000; France and Italy also committed themselves to sending troops. Two days later the two dominant warlords in the area, Ali Mahdi Muhammad and Gen Muhammad Farah Aidid, both of the USC, agreed a truce, but factional fighting continued in remote areas.

Peacekeeping troops embroiled in conflict

The USA pulled out many of its troops in May 1993, but UNOSOM remained. The warlord Gen Aidid saw UN efforts to promote peace and a federal political system as a threat to his power and, in June 1993, his militia attacked and killed 24 Pakistani peacekeeping troops who were part of UNOSOM. Fighting between the two escalated and 12 US troops were killed in Mogadishu in October 1993. US president Bill Clinton announced in March 1994 a staggered withdrawal of US troops and in March 1995 all UN troops were withdrawn, although the rule of law had not been restored.

Clan-based fighting continued, and the power struggle between Aidid and Ali Mahdi Muhammad resumed. Aidid was killed in faction fighting in August 1996, but his son, Hussein Aidid, replaced him as ‘interim president of Somalia’ and the civil war continued. In 1997 and 1998 rival Somali factions signed peace agreements, but they did not hold. In 1998, Puntland, in the northeast, declared its autonomy and in 1999, the Ethiopian army invaded Somalia, in support of opponents of the war lord Hussein Aidid.

Further natural and humanitarian disasters

Somalia was affected by massive flooding in November 1997 and 1998, which killed thousands, destroyed houses and farms, and brought disease. This was followed, in early 1999, by a severe drought in the south, which grows most of the country's food. However, international aid agencies were reluctant to help because of the political instability and of the killings of expatriate aide workers, soldiers, and journalists in 1992. Aid agencies in Somalia estimated in July 1999 that one million people risked famine.

Temporary peace in 2000

In August 2000, after a four-month Somali reconciliation conference in Djibouti, a transitional parliament elected Abdiqasim Salad Hassan, a former interior minister under Siad Barre, as Somalia's civilian president. In October 2000, the president appointed Ali Khalifa Galaid, a business executive, as prime minister and both returned to Mogadishu from exile in Djibouti. Somaliland and Puntland both rejected the new government.

Violence flares again

The new government proved incapable of establishing order and nationwide rule, as heavy fighting broke out between rival militias in 2001. In October 2001, Prime Minister Galaid's government was defeated in a no-confidence motion in the Transitional National Assembly, and in November 2001 former water and minerals minister Hasan Abshir Farah took over as prime minister.

In 2002, Southwestern Somalia declared its autonomy as the civil war continued. After peace talks in Kenya, a new transitional parliament was set up in August 2004 and in October 2004 it elected the warlord Abdullahi Yusuf, previously president of Puntland, as transitional president and Ali Muhammad Gedi as prime minister.

Under the grip of radical Islamists

In 2006, there emerged the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), a radical Islamic movement, led by Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, which sought to institute sharia law in Somalia and which was supported by businessmen who wanted to liberate Somalia from warlord control. It quickly established control over much of the countryside and in June 2006 took control of Mogadishu. This left Transitional President Yusuf in charge of a rump administration with a headquarters in the city of Baidoa.

By September 2006, the ICU had taken control of the southern port of Kismayo and, through negotiation with local clan chiefs rather than fighting, had established control over much of the south.

Ethiopian troops oust the ICU

In October 2006, the ICU's militia declared war on Ethiopia which Yusuf's Transitional Federal Government had asked for military support. On 24 December 2006, Ethiopian troops launched airstrikes against ICU strongholds and sent in tanks in a lightning offensive. They quickly overran the ICU's fighters and on 28 December 2006 the ICU fled Mogadishu towards the south, having been defeated. In January 2007, US aircraft also carried out airstrikes near Ras Kamboni in southern Somalia, targeting suspected al-Qaeda terrorists who were supporting the ICU.

Ethiopia was anxious to withdraw its troops as soon as possible, so that it would not be seen as an occupation force. They did so in February 2007 and were replaced by a UN Security Council authorized deployment of peacekeeping forces from the African Union, including 1,000 Ugandan troops. They sought to assist restoration of order so that Yusuf's Transitional Federal Government could establish better control over those parts of the country which had not declared autonomy. However, in spring 2007 there was a growing insurgency by Islamists, nationalists, and disaffected clans. The insurgents received arms and training from Eritrea, Ethiopia's enemy, and money from the Middle East. The disorder contributed to a growing humanitarian crisis, with hundreds of thousands of people displaced, food shortages, and disease, especially cholera.