The Somali Conflict: The Role of External Actors

Somalia has been without a functioning state ever since 1991, when the former dictator, Siyad Barre, was overthrown. None of the competing factions were strong enough to take his place as ruler of the country, producing first chaos, but gradually a form of stateless order. The international interventions have ever since the failed, and counter-productive intervention by the United Nations and the United States in the early 1990 exacerbated rather than mitigated the problems, let alone solved them. This was especially the case for the Ethiopia invasion (December 2006-January 2009), which produced utter chaos and a severe humanitarian crisis. Since the withdrawal of the Ethiopian forces, Islamist extremist militias have been establishing control of Somalia, and they may or may not be able to maintain this control. If they pursue their radical programme of Islamisation, their reign is likely to be short, but if
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Beyond Regional Circularity: The Emergence of an Ethiopian Diaspora

By Aaron Matteo Terrazas
In March 2007, Foreign Affairs magazine described the Horn of Africa — the area comprising the east African states of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and Sudan — as the "hottest conflict zone in the world."

Over the past half century, the Horn of Africa has played host to some of the world's deadliest conflicts. Caught in the crossfire, the region's population has shifted back and forth across international borders seeking refuge not only from violence, but also from poverty, famine, natural disasters, failed states, and repressive governments. Landlocked Ethiopia, which shares a border with every other state in the Horn, is at the intersection of a complex system of multidirectional regional and international flows of humanity.

The movement of people within the Horn of Africa is hardly a new phenomenon. However, migration from Ethiopia to countries beyond the Horn can be linked to the 1974 revolution that overthrew Emperor Haile Selassie and installed a Marxist military regime, the Derg. Before 1974, the few Ethiopians who went abroad were elites who did so to study and then returned
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The Leading Factions behind the Somali Insurgency

By Andrew McGregor


The U.S.-supported Ethiopian invasion that expelled Somalia's Islamist government last December is rapidly deteriorating into a multi-layered conflict that will prove resistant to resolution. Resistance to Ethiopian troops and the Ethiopian-installed Transitional Federal Government (TFG) is inspired by nationalism, religion, economic factors and clan loyalties, yet all of these motivations are part of a constantly shifting pattern of allegiances in which the only common characteristic is a desire to expel foreign troops from Somalia. Local warlords and clan leaders who were deprived of power by the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) are now scrambling to reassert control over their small fiefdoms in Mogadishu, while many former ICU gunmen have transferred their allegiance to clan militias.

Fighting in the Somali capital of Mogadishu has created over 300,000 civilian refugees. Thousands more (nearly all from the Hawiye clan that dominates the capital) have been killed as residential areas become battlegrounds. Only one overwhelmed hospital is open as Ethiopian troops are using other hospitals as barracks. The Somali TFG is exacerbating the situation by imposing bureaucratic delays on the delivery of relief aid arriving in Mogadishu. Unable to resist the Ethiopian incursion, the ICU dissolved December 27, 2006, returning its stockpiles of weapons and vehicles to the clans and militias who had donated them. Since then, a number of leading elements in the resistance have emerged.
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Preventing and Reducing Armed Violence

Armed violence reduction and prevention1 (AVR) is driven by the humanitarian and development imperative to accelerate global development by reducing the global burden of armed violence. The AVR approach responds to contemporary challenges of violence by addressing the risk factors for crime, interpersonal violence and conflict. Local and national governments experience armed violence most directly and have pioneered a range of preventive responses, often with the support of local communities. The donor community and UN system are also increasingly aware of the potential of targeted preventive measures. They have begun to adapt their strategies and instruments to better assist countries in their struggle to prevent and reduce all forms of
violence. This report provides an overview of some of the emerging lessons learned about how AVR priorities can be integrated into local, national and donor development plans and assistance strategies.
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Victims and Survivors of Armed Violence: Responding to Rights and Needs

This paper reviews key areas of policy and service provision relevant to the rights of victims and survivors of armed violence. It notes the broad humanitarian and development impact of armed violence in both conflict and non-conflict settings, and introduces a rights-based approach to victims and survivors of violence that has been developed over recent decades. It then summarizes key issues in areas of health, justice and social and economic inclusion and considers the implications for national level planning. It concludes with broad recommendations to strengthen international responses to the impact of armed violence. An international response to the problem of armed violence should have as its starting point “the people that are affected by armed violence – both the first-order victims and the wider communities and societies that also suffer consequences.” Data on the impact of armed violence are limited internationally, but recent research suggests that every year, conservatively at least 740,000 people are killed, directly or indirectly, by armed violence. Hundreds of thousands more are injured or suffer psychological trauma; and millions of others live in families and communities that bear the social and economic burden of this violence
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Humanitarian Action in the New Security Environment: Policy and Operational Implications in Somalia and Somaliland

The objective of this case study is to assess to what extent the humanitarian community in Somalia has faced an increase or decrease in insecurity during the last decade (1997 to 2006), and in either case: a) what were the reasons and circumstances; b) what were the policy responses; c) and what was the relationship between the real or perceived security environment and the applied security response systems/approaches. The report identifies changes in, and perceptions of, security and threat levels, and maps the individual security practices of key humanitarian actors and their collective security arrangements, in order to draw conclusions as to how the security environment has impacted on humanitarian delivery, including shifts towards localisation of response.
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A War Without Limits: Somalia's Humanitarian Catastrophe

For years, Somalia has been a byword for anarchic violence, famine, and drought. It is depicted as an inhospitable, ungovernable country ripped apart by long-standing internal feuds and, more recently, as a harbor for terrorism and piracy. Yet not only is this portrayal superficial, but paradoxically it has served to obscure both the nature and severity of the current crisis. The unmitigated disaster that Somalis have experienced in the past two years is not just another episode of the country's troubled history; it is the result of a particularly brutal and escalating war spawned by the clash of national, regional, and international political agendas.
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