Somalia: From the Errors of Colonialism to the Horrors of War

Abstract

Chapter 5 analyses the reality of the Republic of Somalia, a country which is currently facing the worst humanitarian crisis in history. The first descriptive part of the article shows how the current human catastrophe devastating the Somali people is the result of the incomprehensible de-composition of one of the most homogenous peoples in Africa, not only ethnically speaking, but also from a linguistic, religious and cultural point of view. This de-composition, which has led to Somalia being known as the “State without State”, is undoubtedly rooted in the errors and horrors suffered, in the first place, during the successive processes of colonization and de-colonisation, but also during the short history of the State’s independence, which instead brought about the road towards the civil war which finally broke out more than 20 years ago. Taking the reality of Somalia as a limit situation, the second prospective part of the chapter reflects upon the demand for a change of paradigm concerning fundamental questions of International Law, such as the need to transform national security into human security, the step from humanitarian intervention to the responsibility to protect, and the urgent need to examine the bases in greater detail in order to reconstruct failed States.