Crisis In Somalia Research Articles

Navigating chaos: IGAD's efforts Amidst Somalia's Governance crisis

This study investigates how effectively Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has addressed the crisis in Somalia since 1991, using realism theory as its analytical framework. It employs a qualitative case study approach to delve into IGAD's interventions and their implications, conducting an in-depth analysis of IGAD's official documents, resolutions, and crisis-related reports concerning Somalia. By applying realism theory, the study scrutinizes IGAD's actions and motivations from a perspective centered on power politics, highlighting the significance of state interests and regional stability. It suggests that IGAD member states may resist to cooperate when they perceive IGAD's engagement in Somalia is regarded as a threat to their security interests. Despite IGAD's numerous peace initiatives, achieving sustainable peace in Somalia remains elusive. The paper asserts that while IGAD has made substantial efforts to resolve the Somalia conflict, its effectiveness has been constrained by the complexity of the conflict, external influences, and divergent interests among member states. To enhance IGAD's effectiveness, the study recommends various actions, including promoting regional economic integration, mobilizing external resources, improving transparency and accountability, fostering regional identity and solidarity, and maintaining a balanced power dynamic to prevent dominance by any single entity. Applying these measures could significantly improve IGAD's capacity to support peace and stability in Somalia and the entire East Africa region.

United Nations Management of Conflicts: Perceptions on the International Consensus Mobilisation in Somalia Crisis

United Nations Management of Conflicts: Perceptions on the International Consensus Mobilisation in Somalia Crisis

Pre-Election Violence a Case Study of Somalia.

Somalia had experienced many crises as a result of power struggles and leadership elections amongst others that was one of the most challenging things that caused the Horn of Africa backwardness was due to election violence even though election violence was not a new thing because most of their African colleague’s countries such as Uganda, Ghana, Ethiopia, Nigeria and so on had experienced same phenomena. however, Somalia’s election violence was the main focus of this research that was being investigated the objective of this study was to examine the theoretical and practical aspects of the election and elaborate on the history of their election violence and their political system, and the causes of their pre-election violence and the possible way forward to prevent pre-election in post-conflict nations which was Somalia amongst others. The study used a historical approach, mainly focused on past events, and came to conclusions that predicate what would happen in the future. The study’s objectives were in line with the data from various sources used books, journals, papers, studies, policy documents, and other sources were used to acquire the data. The study used a case study approach to evaluate pre-election violence in the post-conflict nation. researchers reported that pre-election violence and competitiveness are inseparable, especially in most African countries ( Kanyinga, 2009). that study also adopted a historical approach design method that will look into past events and conclusions that preempted future events. Most of the findings of those studies included clans and subclans fighting for political power in Somalia clans fighting for political power in Somalia. Somalia’s election crisis started in 1960 after its independence. Some of the causes of pre-election violence included disagreement between parties, corruption, bribery of electoral officials, and so on. That study concluded that pre-election violence had demoralized the democratic system of Somalia. Those who had perceived malpractice of the election violence were less likely to support it, which was in contrast to those who perceived the integrity of the elections. The study recommended that the government of Somalia conducted a free and fair election within a framework of laws that guaranteed that effective exercise of voting rights and the Somalia authorities ensured that independence was credible and impartial investigations waspromptly conducted into all attacks and acts of physical intimidation amongst others. The study had been carried out to fill the lacuna in the aspect of election violence research being conducted by prolific researchers to widen the horizon of knowledge creation of humans and other creatures. As a result, analysis done by the research on corruption and bribery of electoral officials, hiring of individuals to cause harm and unrest on election day, and others included among the findings found in this research. These findings were supported by other researchers like Norris (2014), the system is linked to perceived electoral integrity. On the other hand, election fraud is found to be the main cause of pre-election violence in Somalia. The study proposes that the causes and effects of the electoral crisis in Somalia be investigated to reduce it completely. Also, the electoral violence and its challenges to democracy and governance in Somalia should be investigated.

Review: Environmental Politics of the Middle East, edited by Harry Verhoeven

Review: <i>Environmental Politics of the Middle East</i>, edited by Harry Verhoeven

Gender Inequality: African Union Strategy to Combat Women Poverty Crisis in Somalia

Globalization has led to national security issues to occurred and resulted in people losing their fundamental human rights in some cases. Women’s poverty is clearly the deprivation of human rights for both women and young girls. Somalia, one of the nations in Africa regions, has suffered from the act of gender inequality that deprived the rights of women which led them to live in poverty. Social norms or traditions are playing a crucial role in worsening the condition of living hood among women in Somalia. While both men and women are indeed suffered poverty, however, men are getting wide chances to access job opportunities compared to women. However, in recent years, African Union has acknowledged the importance of women’s role in the economic development of the region, therefore African Union established the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Strategy as a guide to both the government of the states and women’s agency to spread awareness regarding the rights of the women to be equal as men. Therefore, this paper further will discuss how successful such strategies are to be able to construct new ideas and social norms in Somalia.

La Linea del Colore

La Linea del Colore

The Horn of Africa: Past and Present

The Horn of Africa has a special geographical position, since it has access to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. The worsening situation in the Horn of Africa is evidenced by the crisis in Somalia, the raging war in the Ethiopian region of Tigray, for the second year with the participation of the Eritrean army, as well as the growing tension in the states of Oromia and Amhara. The armed conflict that began in November 2020 in northern Ethiopia is now a source of instability for the region. The conflict and the collapse of the economy of this country lead to the displacement of the population, and neighboring states such as Sudan, Djibouti, Kenya and, probably, Somalia will suffer the most from the wave of migration. The article deals with political processes and relations in the Horn of Africa region.

Post War Education and Curriculum History in Somalia

This study assessed the correlation between post war education and curriculum history of secondary schools in Somalia. With the use of descriptive research design, a survey questionnaire and an interview schedule were utilized to garner data which was used to answer the research question on how post war education leads to curriculum history of secondary schools with an aim of developing a new curriculum to address contemporary issues in education such as helping address the current identity crisis in Somalia. The study adopted a descriptive research design with quantitative and qualitative approaches. A sample of 300 respondents were selected using Slovene’s formula. Data was collected using questionnaire and interview guide and analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson’s chi-square statistical test for quantitative data and thematic analysis was used for analyzing qualitative data .The study findings established a significant relationship between post war education and curriculum history in Somalia . The study concluded that post war education has awakened people in Somalia that a relevant curriculum is essential for national development. From the study findings, the researcher recommended that there is a need for a new history curriculum. An integrated thematic instructional model was proposed to deliver a new content and narrative that seeks to develop social cohesion and reconciliation in order to reconstruct national identity in post-conflict Somalia.

Children in Armed Conflict: A Human Rights Crisis in Somalia

Abstract Despite the consolidated body of public international law on children’s rights and armed conflict, why do armed rebel groups and state forces deploy children in armed conflict, particularly in Somalia? First, due to the lack of alternative sources of income and livelihood beyond armed conflict, children join the army due to coercive recruitment by commanders of armed groups. Their participation in armed conflict generates a fleeting and false sense of material security and belongingness in a group. Second, many Somali children were born in an environment of existential violence and material insecurity that normalized and routinized violence, thereby motivating them to view enlistment in armed conflict as morally permissible and necessary for existential survival.

Transformation of the Somali Civil-War and Reflections for a Post -Conflict Social Contract

2019 marks 28 years since the central government in Somalia collapsed, however, even today, subsequent generations of those who experienced the collapse continue to suffer its consequences. Relative to its prolonged manifestation, the crisis in Somalia remains a difficult one to forget given the continued internal suffering and external threat that it poses. Purposefully, this article will attempt to contribute to the existing peace efforts by adding the role of community/clan social contract in the peace process. The previous peace efforts prioritized state -building and establishing a central government without examining the attitude of people towards a central authority given their experiences and how the clans relate to each other. We argue that the complexity of the conflict in Somalia is due to the transformation of the conflict from a civil war to a chaotic mixture of clan-based violence, terrorism, and piracy. To solve this problem, we recommend a two-level social contract approach that will be people driven and address some of the major grievances of key actors through a constitutional process.

Counter-Insurgency Operations of the African Union and Mitigation of Humanitarian Crisis in Somalia

AbstractThe protracted armed conflict in Somalia has engendered an unprecedented humanitarian crisis; one that makes it a leading storehouse of the worst humanitarian conditions in the world. The intervention of the African Union (AU) through its third Peace Support Operation- the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM)- was aimed at supporting the Transitional Federal Institutions in the stabilisation of the country, advancing dialogue and reconciliation as well as facilitating the provision of humanitarian support. The achievement of the humanitarian component of the mission’s mandate is largely contingent on the first two mandates. Essentially, this study interrogated the interface between the implementation of the humanitarian component of AMISOM mandate and the control of the worsening conditions of Somali internally displaced persons and refugees. Anchoring analysis within the classical approach to national security, the study found that the restoration of relative stability in the polity has not widened access to economic and humanitarian assistance in the terror-laden state of Somalia. Thus, greater commitment of major stakeholders, especially the United Nations (UN), the United States as well as the AU is required in the transmutation of AMISOM and Somalia National Armed Forces into a force that is entirely indigenous to the people of Somalia. This will serve as an elixir to the ever-constricting humanitarian corridor that has exacerbated the conditions of the victims of forced migration in Somalia.

London Conference on Somalia: Another Missed Opportunity?

In his book, ‘Somalia: the Missed Opportunities’, the former UN Secretary General’s Representative for Somalia, Mohamed Sahnoun, fittingly catalogues a number of missed chances that both the international community and the Somali people failed to utilise to find a lasting solution to the protracted political crisis in Somalia. Sadly, after the publication of the book, numerous other conferences miserably failed to ameliorate the calamitous situation, and hence countless other opportunities had been missed.This note will only discuss three issues raised, directly or indirectly, in the conference communique that have received scant attention from other commentators, namely the end of the transition, inclusion of human rights in the final statement and the military intervention of the neighbouring countries.

Somalia: An Overview of the Historical and Current Situation

In Somalia as in many other conflict ravaged societies, “history is deadly ammunition in today’s political wars.” In that respect, to comprehend the depth of apparently unsolvable and protracted crisis in Somalia, it is essential to identify and analyse the underlying causes of these predicaments that have been unfolding since the colonial era. Additionally, understanding the causes and intricacies of the current political turmoil is also necessary for finding the way to end this madness, as other analysts rightly acknowledged with reference to the Somali conflict “an understanding of what went wrong is indispensable to the search for solutions to the president predicament.” In that respect, this paper provides some background information and analysis on the key events leading up to the complete collapse of the Somali State in 1991 and its devastating aftermath. Furthermore, this paper examines human rights records of subsequent Somali governments as well as non-state actors. Finally, it highlights and studies the challenges and problems associated with attempts to reconstitute collapsed state institutions.

Building terror while fighting enemies: how the Global War on Terror deepened the crisis in Somalia

Somalia has become a front in the US Global War on Terror (GWoT) because of the potential connection between terrorism and state fragility. While originally oriented towards ‘building states while fighting terror’, Enduring Freedom in Somalia obtained quite the opposite result of deepening the existing conflict. Why and how did the GWoT result in the controversial outcome of ‘building terror while fighting enemies’? This article argues that the GWoT sponsored in Somalia an isolationist strategy that encouraged the political polarisation and military radicalisation of the insurgency. To explore this argument, the article first analyses the structure of the intervention by focusing on the interests and strategies of the interveners. Then it evaluates the conditions under which the modality of intervention (through the use of diplomatic, economic and coercive measures) violated the conditions essential to resolving conflict.

The roots of strategic failure: The Somalia Syndrome and Al Qaeda’s path to 9/11

This article locates the origins of 9/11 in the increasingly globalized security context of the early post-Cold War period. In particular, it seeks to illuminate the causal connection between the disastrous US-UN humanitarian intervention in Somalia in 1992–1993 and the emergence of a permissive security environment that ultimately made the events of 11 September possible. It is argued here that the Somali crisis was a defining moment for US foreign policy in the post-Cold War era. It generated the ‘Somalia Syndrome’ in Washington – a risk-averse approach to intervention in civil conflicts which, as the terrorist attack on the United States in September 2011 subsequently revealed, had unintended but far-reaching international consequences.

Maritime Training Serbian Autonomous Vessel Protection Detachment

AbstractThe crisis in Somalia has caused appearance of piracy at sea in the Gulf of Aden and the Western Indian Ocean. Somali pirates have become a threat to economic security of the world because almost 30 percent of world oil and 20 percent of global trade passes through the Gulf of Aden. Solving the problem of piracy in this part of the world have included international organizations, institutions, military alliances and the states, acting in accordance with international law and UN Security Council resolutions. The European Union will demonstrate the application of a comprehensive approach to solving the problem of piracy at sea and the crisis in Somalia conducting naval operation — EU NAVFOR Atalanta and operation EUTM under the Common Security and Defense Policy. The paper discusses approaches to solving the problem of piracy in the Gulf of Aden and the crisis in Somalia. Also, the paper points to the complexity of the crisis in Somalia and dilemmas correctness principles that are applied to solve the problem piracy at sea. One of goals is protections of vessels of the World Food Programme (WFP) delivering food aid to displaced persons in Somalia. Republic of Serbia joined in this mission and trained and sent one a autonomous team in this military operation for protection WFP. This paper consist the problem of modern piracy, particularly in the area of the Horn of Africa became a real threat for the safety of maritime ships and educational process of Serbian Autonomous vessel protection detachment. Serbian Military Academy adopted and developed educational a training program against piracy applying all the provisions and recommendations of the IMO conventions and IMO model courses for Serbian Autonomous vessel protection detachment.

Understanding the Crisis in Somalia

Abstract The people of Somalia are suffering. The numbers are huge, but there is little real data. Even what little there is, painfully and dangerously gathered, points to where the most urgent needs may be. Alaa Abou Zeid and James J. Cochran look at the statistics of a disaster.

The Responsibility to Protect: Added value or hot air?

This article argues that the Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) adds value to international efforts to protect populations from genocide and mass atrocities, but not in the ways commonly thought. It suggests that RtoP is not particularly effective as a ‘rallying call’ that mobilises action in cases where international society may be initially reluctant to act. Where it does add value is in helping to reshape states’ identities and interests such that consideration of the protection needs of populations, in relation to the threat of genocide and mass atrocities, has been internalised to some extent by the UN Security Council. As such, RtoP is best seen as being a ‘habit former’. The principle does not, however, determine particular behaviours or guarantee international consensus because decision-making is heavily influenced by contextual factors. The argument proceeds in three parts. The first examines instances where RtoP has been invoked since early 2006. The second explores the role of context in shaping how the UN Security Council responds to particular crises. Finally, to amplify the points made in these sections, the third section considers the UN Security Council’s response to the crisis in Somalia after 2006.

A forgotten tweet: Somalia and social media

Several studies highlight the power of social media outlets to raise awareness, funds, and further recovery efforts in disaster-prone areas, but few have investigated where social media have been ineffectual. Although the long-running humanitarian crisis in Somalia receives only sporadic news coverage, the country is not without a social media presence. This study uses Coombs’ SCCT Model to evaluate the crisis response message strategies put forth via Twitter from leading Somali-based government agency sources. The limitations of social media as a force to exact change and manage crises in Africa is examined, and insight is offered into how social media channel information to traditional and non-traditional information sources.

Getting Somalia Wrong? Faith, war and hope in a shattered state

Mary Harper's book is a very timely account of the major aspects of the protracted Somali crisis. In six chapters plus Introduction and Conclusion, Harper puts across one main argument: Somalia is not entirely failed. There are many aspects of the Somali situation that merit our attention and can be described as hopeful, positive developments. A lot can be learned from ‘the Somali way of doing things’ (p. 2). This contrasts strongly with the negative perspectives on everything Somali that dominate current international politics and popular perceptions. In fact, the word ‘Somalia’ has become a synonym for war, anarchy, terrorism, piracy, and humanitarian disaster, and the country serves as a warning to all others not to go down the road of complete state collapse. Chapter 1 on clan and country, and Chapter 2 on history aim to provide the necessary background for readers unfamiliar with Somali affairs. While they go a considerable way toward doing that, these are the book's weakest chapters. They contain several factual errors or mistranslations of Somali names. For instance, the assumption of a north–south migration of Somalis (p. 45) contradicts the established literature on that subject, and the chapters perpetuate a stereotypical picture of ‘the Somali’ as a ‘nomadic’ and ‘warlike’ people (pp. 23, 45, for example).