Rise Of Somalia Research Paper

It is worth noting that Somalis are a mostly homogenous population. Specifically, they share a common language, religion (mostly Sunni Muslim, minority Shi'i) and a common historical identity. The main source of internal contention has always been disputes between the four main clan-families; the Dir, Darod, Isaaq, and Hawiye clans.(Jennifer De MaioTITLE:Managing Civil Wars: An Evaluation of Conflict-prevention Strategies in Africa ) However at this point in history, the Somali people, longing to break out from imperial rule, unified briefly under the Salihiyah tariqa, an orthodox muslim brotherhood led by Mahammad Abdille Hasan. The so-called, Dervish rebellion targeted the British and Egyptian

Separated not only by the Atlantic Ocean, Somalia and the United States are also separated by the differences in economies and populations. These two countries that are quite opposite in size have some similarities in their governments and education systems.

etly with Aidid without informing the elite soldiers. Also involved with this negotiation was Jimmy Carter who acted as an intermediary because of his previous relationship with Aidid (“Ambush”).

As more and more foreign forces made their way into Somalia attention fell on the

Black Hawk Down aka Battle of Mogadishu was a battle that the U.S. soldiers landed into Somalia to capture the two top lieutenants of the renegade warlord and find themselves in a desperate battle with large force against Somalis in 1993. In the movie “Black Hawk Down” they make the Somalis of Mogadishu as being faceless mobs, and baying. There was no effort made in the movie to try to explain why both civilians and militiamen acted so violently to the botched U.S. Gothic Serpent. A previous US air attack in downtown Mogadishu had killed many tribal elders and innocent civilians. This generated a lot of public support for the armed militias. Somalis began to look to the warlords for protection from what they saw as unprovoked American attacks.

Then, United Somalia Congress divide into multiple clans which escalate the turmoil through inter-clan warfare. Such warfare destroyed the economy, and left hundreds of thousands of Somalians to perish of starvation.

The Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) and the Hutu militia known as the Interahamwe then went from house to house killing Tutsis and moderate Hutu politicians. U.N peacekeeping forces known as the UNAMIR (United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda) stood by as the slaughter went on as they were forbidden to intervene, because it would breach their "monitoring" mandate. The next day on April 7th , 1994 ten Belgian soldiers with UNAMIR, who were assigned to guard the moderate Hutu prime minister Uwilingiymana, were tricked into giving up their weapons and were brutally tortured and murdered along with Uwilingiymana. On April 9th, 1994, France and Belgium sent troops to rescue their citizens; American Citizens were also airlifted out. However no Rwandans were rescued, not even those who were employed by western governments.

The deployment of United States Special Forces to Somalia to apprehend General Aidid was in the interest of the United States, if Nuechterlein's outline of national security interest was anything to go by. Somali had gone through difficult times and there was need to restore normalcy in this Horn of Africa's state. Restoring normalcy would have ensured that stability returned. Moreover, this would have ensured that the instability that had been realized here never spilled over into other Eastern Africa states. Had the United States Special Forces succeeded in apprehending General Aidid, a democratically elected government would have been instituted. This government would have prioritized democratic governance principles that conform to United States Army War College's "Favorable World Order category" (Nuechterlein, 1985). Yes, it was difficult to establish Jeffersonian democracy in Somalia bearing in mind that Somalia was a tribal nation; however, it was something worth giving a short. This could only be made possible by chopping off the head of Aidid's organization and ultimately taking Aidid out of the streets. Under the leadership of Aidid, the United Nations lost at least 24 soldiers of Pakistani origin many of whom were skinned (Bowden, 1997).

Somalia is a country situated in the ÒhornÓ of East Africa. It is bordered by the Gulf of Aden in the north, the Indian Ocean on the east and southeast, Kenya in the southwest, Ethiopia in the west, and Djibouti in the northwest. Somalia is about four times the size of the State of Minnesota, or slightly smaller than Texas. The capital is Mogadishu.

Bush offered to escort the UN peacekeepers into Somalia to protect them. Operation Restore Hope worked with the United Nations to get supplies into Somalia. Critics argued that the only reason the United States military arrived was due to the fact Somalia was rich

(8:46 - 8:50) Atto states “This is civil war, This is our war. Not yours” Atto is convinced the U.S. should stay away from Somalia, and the U.S. is waisting there time trying to find

The Pentagon’s Africa Command has worked tirelessly on a decade-long counterinsurgency operation against the guerrilla group. The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for crimes against humanity and war crimes

By November of 1992, conditions were getting worse instead of better. Food was still being stolen and sold off to clan leaders while aid workers were threatened and attacked. Americans were stunned at the lawlessness and starvation. Thousands of troops were ordered into Somalia to assist in the aid by President George H. Bush. Now food was getting to the people that it was intended for but distrust for the American soldiers was growing after they often violated Somalis privacy by bursting into their homes and confiscating the weapons that was the Somalis only defense against the opposing clans.6 In March of 1993 the U.S. withdrew most of its troops leaving the security of the people to the UN. By this time anger was growing towards the outsiders and the UN took most of the fallout for that by being attacked regularly. Hostility grew even more when the UN announced that the clan led by Aidid was the one responsible for the lawlessness in Somalia.7 When the UN took sides against the most powerful warlord in Somalia, the attacks against the aid workers was stepped up. 24 Pakistani peace keepers were killed

During his time as president, Mohammed Barre attempted to regain Somali territory from their neighbouring country, Ethiopia, but eventually the fight was lost. The citizens of Somali started to build up a resistance against Barre’s harsh regime and in 1991 government were overthrown again.

In August of 1992, President George Bush Sr. sent US soldiers into Somalia to provide humanitarian relief to those Somalis suffering from starvation. The major problems in Somalia started when President Mohammed Siad Barre was overthrown by a coalition of opposing clans. Although there were several opposing groups, the prominent one was led by Mohammed Farah Aidid. Following the overthrow of Barre, a massive power struggle ensued. These small scale civil wars led to the destruction of the agriculture in Somalia, which in turn led to the deprivation of food in large parts of the country. When the international community heard of this, large quantities of food were sent to ease Somali suffering. However, clan leaders like Aidid routinely