Genesis

Abstract

This chapter analyses AMISOM’s genesis with reference to four important developments in Somalia and the Horn of Africa in the aftermath of al-Qa’ida’s attack on the United States on 11 September 2001. First, was the establishment of a Transitional Federal Government (TFG) for Somalia in 2004, after more than a dozen failed attempts. Second, the African Union and Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) responded to the subsequent call by the new TFG president for a peacebuilding mission to help his regime establish itself inside Somalia. The third development came in June 2006 with the decisive victory of the Union of Islamic Courts over the various warlords that had previously run Mogadishu and much of south-central Somalia. Finally, AMISOM emerged as an exit strategy for Ethiopia’s troops after Prime Minister Meles Zenawi decided to intervene militarily to install the TFG in Mogadishu in December 2006.