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Somalia in turmoil

Delivering aid in a lawless state

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Updated 20 February 2012 05:00 PM GMT

War, anarchy, drought and floods have left hundreds of thousands of Somalis in need of aid in

one of the world's poorest and most violent countries.

The country has had no functioning government since warlords from rival clans ousted military

dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, plunging the country into conflict.


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In 2006, Islamists restored relative calm when they took control of the capital Mogadishu and

most of southern Somalia. Six months later they were defeated by government forces backed by

Ethiopian troops, which remained in the country until early 2009.

Somalia's current interim government is virtually powerless, and depends on foreign backing and

warlord alliances for its survival.

In recent years hardline Islamist insurgents have gained control of large parts of southern and

central Somalia, including some of the capital.

Two groups, the powerful al Qaeda-allied al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam, are fighting to topple the

fragile government, which they say is a puppet of the West. They want to impose a strict version

of Islamic sharia law throughout the country.

African Union peacekeepers are in Somalia to help support the government against the

insurgents.

Both Transitional Federal Government forces and insurgents use child soldiers - some forcibly

recruited from displacement camps - the U.N. Children's Fund UNICEF says.

The African Union force AMISOM has been strongly criticised for indiscriminately shelling

civilian areas, killing civilians and causing mass displacement says the IDMC.

U.N. officials describe Somalia as one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. An estimated 2.8

million Somalis need humanitarian aid due to a combination of fighting, displacement and poor

harvests. The country has some of the world's highest malnutrition levels.

In July 2011, the United Nations declared a famine in parts of southern Somalia.

The self-declared state of Somaliland, in the north of the country, is relatively safe compared

with the rest of Somalia. But thousands have been displaced by fighting between local

government forces and an armed group called Sool, Sanaag and Cayn.


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Another northern semi-autonomous region - Puntland - has become out-of-bounds for

international aid workers because of worsening security.

Puntland wants to remain part of Somalia. Somaliland declared independence in 1991 and,

although not recognised internationally, it has a functioning government, police force and

currency.

Uprooted by war

Over 2.2 million Somalis have been forced to flee their homes, according to U.N. Refugee

Agency (UNHCR) figures for January 2011. More than 1.5 million are displaced internally and

at least another 700,000 have fled across the border.

The displacement figures grew in 2011, as large numbers of people fled severe drought.

Mogadishu has become so dangerous since 2006 that the majority of its inhabitants have fled,

leaving entire neighbourhoods empty.

Many of the uprooted have sought refuge with relatives and friends, often sharing cramped

rooms with several other families. Others are in makeshift shelters.

So many people are camped along the 15 km (10 mile) stretch of road west out of Mogadishu

towards the town of Afgoye that the United Nations has said it is probably the largest gathering

of displaced people in the world, with 410,000 people living there in January 2011.

But most of the country's displaced are concentrated in southern and central regions where

regular drought and high food Hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees have sought asylum in

neighbouring countries, UNHCR says.

Hundreds have drowned making the dangerous sea crossing to Yemen, which they see as a

gateway to wealthier parts of the Middle East and the West.

Others are crammed into sprawling camps in Dadaab in northeast Kenya, which are regularly hit

by flooding and drought.


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The Dadaab camps host about 380,000 refugees, but they were built in 1991 to accommodate a

quarter of that, and were officially declared full in 2008. Up to five families share plots designed

for one family, and more than 40,000 people squat outside the camp.

Many have also sought asylum in Ethiopia and Djibouti.

UNHCR says the international community has failed to respond adequately to the plight of

Somalia's displaced people, and aid agencies have suffered a severe shortfall in funding.

In the absence of a functioning government, there is no bilateral aid to Somalia.

Drought and flooding

Some of the country's displacement is caused by persistent drought.

A large proportion of rural Somalis are semi-nomadic, but years of drought have forced many to

move their families to towns and villages in search of food and water.

Agencies say many communities - particularly pastoralists - have used up all their emergency

supplies and will need support for several years to recover.

In 2011, tens of thousands of people died when severe drought gripped large parts of the country

and food prices soared. Large areas of the country are experiencing a severe food crisis and, in

July, the United Nations declared a famine in the southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle regions of

south Somalia. It said 2.85 million people overall needed emergency food aid.

Hospitals and aid agencies reported a sharp rise in child hunger levels, even in the traditional

breadbasket regions of Bay and Lower Shabelle.

Many fled to Mogadishu or across the border to Kenya and Ethiopia. UNHCR said in July 2011

it was struggling to keep pace with the volume of new arrivals

Many of the worst-hit areas are controlled by al Shabaab, who have banned more than a dozen

aid agencies.


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After the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004, there were reports of toxic materials being

washed up along Somalia's shoreline. Hundreds of people in fishing communities complained of

acute respiratory infections, unusual skin conditions, bleeding mouths and sudden death after

inhaling toxic materials. Some experts believe the chemicals, including some radioactive

material, had been illegally dumped in Somalia's waters.

Delivering aid

Moving around Somalia is almost impossible. Roads have barely been maintained in years,

militia and bandits sometimes open fire on convoys, and there are endless roadblocks where

gunmen extort money and steal cargoes. Inter-clan fighting is common, making some areas

inaccessible.

Aid access is extremely limited in central and southern Somalia where the needs are greatest.

WFP suspended its aid to areas under al Shabaab control in southern Somalia in January 2010,

affecting 1 million people, citing insecurity and al Shabaab demands for payment and bans on

female staff.

The World Food Programme said it continued to feed people in Mogadishu and central and

northern Somalia.

Al Shabaab has banned several international aid agencies from operating in Somalia.

Few international aid staff are posted in Somalia, where foreign workers are a prime target for

kidnapping. However, plenty of international relief agencies operate through Somali staff and

local partner agencies - although they too are targeted.


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Aid agencies sometimes travel with their own security, but that can also be risky as militia are

more likely to ambush them in search of guns and ammunition.

Ninety percent of food aid arrives by sea, according to WFP. But Western warships have had to

be deployed to protect the shipments from pirates who prowl off Somalia's lawless coast.

In March 2010, the U.N. Somalia Monitoring Group said that as much as half of the food aid

sent to Somalia is diverted to a network of corrupt contractors, radical Islamist militants and

local U.N. staff.

Donors are reluctant to fund aid because of problems of access and concerns about aid being

diverted.

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Government woes

The upheaval following the ousting of military dictator Barre in 1991 displaced some 2 million

people and coincided with a serious drought.

The deadly combination of hunger and displacement pushed almost 4.5 million people - more

than half the population - to the brink of starvation by 1992, according to a U.N. report issued

five years later. It said 300,000 people, many of them children, died from hunger-related disease

during this catastrophe.


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In 1992, the United States sent in troops ahead of a U.N. force, but left two years later after

tough resistance from warlords, including clashes in 1993 that killed 18 U.S. soldiers and

hundreds of Somali militiamen.

Memories of this humiliating incident, which inspired Hollywood movie "Black Hawk Down",

have left the international community reluctant to get involved in Somalia again.

The U.N. mission was also unable to end the fighting or safeguard humanitarian aid. It left in

1995.

There have been repeated attempts to restore normal government. In 2004, an interim

government-in-exile was formed in Kenya, as Somalia was considered too dangerous a base.

The transitional government was plagued from the start by tensions between rival warlords and

its arrival in Somalia was delayed by disagreements on where to house the government and

whether to accept foreign peacekeepers.

A faction led by parliamentary speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan decided to base itself in

Mogadishu, while President Abdullahi Yusuf said it was too dangerous, and moved his faction to

the provincial city of Jowhar, 90 km (55 miles) north of the capital.

The first prime minister of the interim government, Mohammed Ali Gedi, resigned in late 2007,

deeply unpopular for his refusal to negotiate with Islamists. He was succeeded by Nur Hassan

Hussein.


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Yusuf resigned in December 2008 after becoming increasingly isolated both nationally and

internationally. He was blamed for hindering a U.N.-hosted peace process and lost parliamentary

support over his decision to sack Hussein.

Parliament elected a new moderate Islamist president, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, in early 2009.

Ahmed headed the sharia courts movement that brought some stability to Mogadishu and most of

south Somalia in 2006, before Washington's main regional ally Ethiopia invaded to oust them.

His hardline former allies declared war on his government and called him a traitor.

Ahmed picked Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke to be prime minister in a power-sharing

government intended to end civil conflict. Sharmarke resigned in September 2010 over tensions

with Ahmed, and the following month he was replaced by Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed.

However, Mohamed was forced out by a deal struck in June 2011 in Kampala between the

president and speaker of parliament that extended the beleaguered administration's mandate by

12 months.

Most MPs opposed the Kampala agreement and called for the impeachment of Parliamentary

Speaker Sharif Hassan for abuse of power.

Abdiweli Mohamed Ali replaced Mohamed as prime minister in June.

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Islamist opposition

Islamist militia loyal to the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) took control of Mogadishu in 2006,

and restored some law and order before being ousted by Ethiopian troops sent in to bolster the

weak interim government.

Al Shabaab started out as the youth and military wing of the UIC. Some exiled hardline al

Shabaab leaders have been based in Eritrea, which is also keen to oust its old enemy Ethiopia

from Somalia. The United States lists al Shabaab as a terrorist organisation. The group has

declared allegiance with al Qaeda, and has links with rebels in Yemen. It was also behind attacks

in Uganda in July 2010 that killed at least 79 people.

Another key rebel group is Hizbul Islam, an umbrella organisation of four groups whose leaders

had previously participated in the UIC administration of 2006. In 2009, they united with the aim

of replacing Ahmed's government with a hardline Islamic state.

President Ahmed tried to bring members of Hizbul Islam into his administration, but its leader

hardline cleric Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys refused to join.

Hizbul Islam and al Shabaab fought together against the government in Mogadishu, but they

were rivals in other parts of the country.

In December 2010, the two agreed to merge.


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Between them, the two factions control much of Somalia while the government retains a tenuous

hold over parts of Mogadishu.

Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca is a moderate Islamist group aligned with the government. The group is

led by Sufi clerics and has fought and successfully beaten back al Shabaab in parts of central

Somalia. Stung by some al Shabaab practices including desecration of graves, it has vowed to

oust the group from other areas. It says the Somali war is sponsored by al Qaeda and other

forces, and has nothing to do with Islam.

Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca briefly joined the government in March 2010, but left in September that

year saying the government had not fulfilled its promises under a power-sharing deal. The group

said it would continue fighting al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam.

When the UIC took control of Mogadishu and a swathe of southern Somalia in June 2006, they

fought a coalition of warlords styling themselves as a counterterrorism alliance. By late

September, they held all the country's main ports except for those in the northern enclaves of

Puntland and Somaliland.

While they signed a pact to recognise Yusuf's government, their formation of a national council,

new sharia courts and militia movements were seen as a challenge to the government and soon

eclipsed it.

The Islamists sought initially to present a moderate face, saying they wanted to bring order to

anarchic Mogadishu. And in many ways, they did. The harbour opened briefly and many of the

city's residents said they felt safe for the first time in years.


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But many Somalis - although Muslims - disliked the Islamic Courts' extreme stances, which

included public executions, restrictions on women's ability to work, a ban on watching soccer's

World Cup finals and crackdowns on "un-Islamic" hairstyles.

And the rise of Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys - a hardline Muslim cleric on U.N. and U.S.

"terrorist" lists - fuelled fears the Islamists wanted a rule resembling that of Afghanistan's

Taliban.

Washington made clear it believed the Islamists were linked to al Qaeda, and accused them of

sheltering the suspects behind 1998 bomb attacks on U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es

Salaam.

Ethiopia, a U.S. ally, deployed its troops across the border in 2006 to defend the interim

government, and by the end of the year admitted its soldiers were fighting the Islamists.

The United Nations said Eritrea - Ethiopia's arch-enemy - had sent arms to the Islamists, while

the Islamists said U.S. money was pouring into Mogadishu to support their enemies.

The perception, justified or otherwise, that U.S. money funded Mogadishu's warlords turned the

fighting into a proxy war between Islamist militants and Washington, which was laced with

commercial and political motives.

Somali government forces and their Ethiopian allies took back Mogadishu at the end of 2006,

and seized the last remaining Islamist stronghold in the south on New Year's Day 2007.


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But the Islamists have regained large swathes of territory and, by July 2009, they controlled

much of southern and central Somalia, and parts of the capital.

Having failed to end the insurgency, Ethiopia withdrew its troops in early 2009.

Kenya began military attacks against al Shabaab in Somalia in October 2011, following several

kidnappings on Kenyan soil, which Kenya blamed on the militants.

Ethiopia sent troops to central Somalia in November 2011.

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Outside intervention

Many analysts say that U.S. fears of al Qaeda involvement were probably initially baseless but

became a self-fulfilling prophesy. In January 2007, al Qaeda urged the Islamists to launch an

Iraq-style insurgency against the Ethiopian military in Somalia.

A U.S. gunship attack on a village in southern Somalia in early 2007 - the first known direct U.S.

military intervention in Somalia since its failed peacekeeping mission in 1994 - turned into a PR

fiasco when it turned out that the 20 or more people killed were civilians, and not fugitive al

Qaeda suspects.

Rights groups say various sides, including the Ethiopians, have used excessive force with little

regard for civilian casualties.


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About 6,500 people were killed in 2007 in Mogadishu alone.

The AMISOM force was deployed early 2007 to support the Somali peace process in the wake of

the ousting of the UIC.

But the AU peacekeepers have been unable to stem the Islamist insurgency and have found

themselves under attack. They complain of being under-funded and under-staffed. However, they

have succeeded in reviving Mogadishu's port, turning it into a thriving business centre.

While U.N. Security Council members agree the situation is dire, many are reluctant to send

U.N. peacekeepers, and most observers say a U.N. peacekeeping mission is unlikely while there

is no peace to keep.

Despite a U.N. arms embargo, arms shipments to Somali militants have not stopped.

The Security Council slapped sanctions on Eritrea in December 2009, saying it was sending

weapons to southern Somalia. Asmara has denied backing rebel groups.

A U.N. report in March 2010 suggested weapons deliveries from Eritrea to Somalia had slowed

and Asmara's support for Somali rebels was now more diplomatic, logistical and financial.

In 2008, the Security Council received reports that "elements" of the AU peacekeeping mission

and the transitional government were involved in arms trafficking, and most ammunition

available in Somali arms markets had been supplied by government and Ethiopian troops.


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Back to top

Clan divisions

Most political decisions in Somalia are related to clan loyalties.

The country's four major clans - the Dir, Isaaq, Hawiye and the Darod - are collectively known

as Samaale. They are primarily nomadic and live in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti.

The original Somali nation was divided up between British, French, Italian and Ethiopian

colonies, which accounts for the spill-over of Samaale into neighbouring countries today.

Two other clans, the Digil and the Raxanweyn, are known as Sab. Most Sab live in villages in

southern Somalia where they farm and keep livestock.

The most powerfully armed clan is the Hawiye group, whose sub-clans have a long history of

conflict that has defied all attempts at pacification. The Al Shabaab rebel group comprises many

Hawiye fighters.

Though competition between Somalia's clans is nothing new, former dictator Siad Barre - a

Darod who ruled Somalia for over 20 years - fuelled conflict by manipulating clan and sub-clan

loyalties.

When he was ousted in 1991, the scene was already set for widespread violence. The group that

helped topple him - the United Somali Congress (USC), drawn from the Hawiye clan - then split

over who should rule.


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A wealthy businessman, Ali Mahdi Mohammed, backed by the Hawiye's Abgal sub-clan,

nominated himself as president. But General Mohammed Farah Aideed, the USC's main military

commander backed by another sub-clan, the Habr Gedir, wanted power for himself.

Former President Abdullahi Yusuf, who quit in 2008, was a Darod. He backed the U.S.-led "war

on terror" and was no friend to radical Islamic groups within Somalia. After the Islamists' ouster

from Mogadishu, one of the main challenges facing Yusuf and the interim government was to

make peace with the Hawiye clan based in the capital.

Analysts say a lasting political settlement is unlikely unless the government agrees to share

power in a way acceptable to the main clans.

Somalia's President Ahmed is a Hawiye, but has chosen as prime minister a Western-educated

Darod to try to broaden the appeal of his government at home and abroad.

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