THE CRISIS IN SOMALIA Conflict Studies 120

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SOMALIA • Somalia was created in 1960. Since then its development has been slow. • Relations with neighbours have been soured by its territorial claims on Somaliinhabited areas of Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti. • In 1970 Siad Barre proclaimed a socialist state, paving the way for close relations with the USSR. • In 1991 President Barre was overthrown by opposing clans. • These clans failed to agree on a replacement and plunged the country into lawlessness and clan warfare.

1993 – THE BATTLE OF MOGADISHU • 1992 - UN troops arrive to monitor ceasefire after fighting which followed fall of Siad Barre. US-led task force delivers aid “Operation Restore Hope” • 1993 - UN mission is dealt a fatal blow when US rangers are killed in incident (later made famous by Hollywood film Black Hawk Down) • 1995 - UN troops withdraw, leaving warlords to fight on. UN casualties number 150

THE CANADIAN AIRBORNE SCANDAL • Canada participated in the UN mission alongside the USA: Operation Deliverance. • In Somalia, the Canadians: escorted relief convoys, cleared land mines, collected and destroyed thousands of confiscated weapons. • The Canadian mission in Somalia was clouded by the Canadian Airborne Affair (torturing a young prisoner) and the death of a young Somalian intruder in the Canadian camp. • The Canadian Airborne Division was disbanded as a result of their actions in Somalia: they were found lacking in both leadership and moral accountability. This caused a great scandal in Canada.

ISLAMIST INSURGENCY • In 2006 Islamists gained control of much of the south of Somalia, including the capital, after their militias kicked out the warlords who had ruled the roost for 15 years. • Islamist insurgents - including the Al-Shabab group, which later declared allegiance to al-Qaeda and in 2012 announced its merger with the global Islamist terrorist group - fought the government and Ethiopian forces, gaining control of most of southern Somalia by late 2008. • Ethiopia pulled its troops out in January 2009. • Soon after, Al-Shabab fighters took control of Baidoa, formerly a key stronghold of the transitional government.

• Al-Shabab consolidated its position as the most powerful insurgent group by driving its main rival, Hizbul Islam, out of the southern port city of Kismayo in October 2009. • But al-Shabab was wrongfooted by a series of government and African peacekeeper offensives and a Kenyan army incursion in 2011. • In a sign of growing confidence, Somalia's first formal parliament in more than 20 years was sworn in at Mogadishu airport in 2012, marking an end to the eight-year transitional period. • President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was named in September 2012.

• The Mohamud government is trying to stamp out nepotism and clan rivalry, and re-establish order.

PIRATES IN SOMALIA • The pirates off the coast of Somalia are mainly fighters from the many warlord factions that formed in the country after the fall of the Barre government in 1991 • Initial motives: survival • Armed extortion = one of the only ways of making money during Somalia’s descent into anarchy • Piracy is now highly organized and makes millions of dollars a year. • Most pirates come from Puntland, a region of Somalia that declared independence in the early 1990s.