Somali Civil War on the Term Paper

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In 1991 a short-lived coalition of opposition groups seized the capital Mogadishu and ousted Said Barre. By 1992 it is estimated that over half a million people had died through war or from starvation. Between 800,000-1.5m people fled the country to refugee camps in Ethiopia, Kenya, Yemen and Djibouti. From there many moved to Nairobi or Addis Ababa before embarking on a journey to the 'West'.

In May 1991, the people of north-west Somalia broke away to form the Republic of Somaliland.

Although not recognised by the international community, its creation has resulted in relative political stability. Elsewhere, the ruling coalition collapsed resulting in a state of anarchy and civil war that exists today with rival warlords vying for power. Since 1991 most asylum seekers have come from these central and southern regions. In Somaliland the voluntary repatriation of refugees from neighbouring countries is now taking place. Return visits to, and investments in, Somaliland by Somalis who have gained European citizenship are now commonplace indicative of strengthening transnational networks.

Conflict continued in different regions of the country in the latter half of the decade, causing local population displacement. Factional fighting continued in Mogadishu throughout 1996, despite the death of Somali National Alliance (SNA) leader Mohamed Farah Aideed. A spate of peace conferences made little progress towards stabilising Mogadishu and the central and southern regions of the country. During 1998, conflict in the southern coastal areas forced an estimated 25,000 people to flee. Up to 10,000 Somalis fled by boat to Yemen during that year, many hundreds of them drowning at sea. Violence during 1999 forced at least 50,000 people to flee their homes, either to neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia or internally to Mogadishu.

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Mogadishu housed an estimated 230,000 individuals in 200 camps during 1999. Thousands of residents from southern Somalia also fled to the north of the country.

Although human rights organisations had clearly signalled the impending disaster in Somalia, the international response was slow in coming. UN peacekeeping forces had arrived in Somali in April 1992, as part of the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM). Their role was limited to overseeing a ceasefire between the different clan factions. Only a handful of aid agencies had remained in the country after Barre's departure from Mogadishu in 1991. As a result, extensive knowledge of local conditions was lacking in the humanitarian agencies when emergency food flowed into the regions, resulting in the destabilisation of food markets. Delivering humanitarian aid to the affected regions was particularly difficult for the agencies involved, many of which were forced to pay armed militia to distribute relief. This in turn encouraged a war economy, which quickly became dependent upon overseas cash flows and personnel. The concentration of aid in and around Mogadishu drew increasing numbers of displaced people from rural areas to the relief camps in the city.

A decade of civil war, the massive population displacement of about 700,000 Somalis, and the combined effects of drought, famine, and flooding had conspired to keep Somalia amongst the poorest of the world's nations. About 75 per cent of Somalis remained undernourished in 2000. The UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) estimated Somalia to be the 'world's hungriest nation'. The UN World Food Programme, UNICEF, and the World Health Organization (WHO) provided food and medical assistance to several million Somalis in 2000.....

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