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The Conflict Between Kenya And Somalia Essay

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Throughout the 20th century, Kenya and Somalia have been in constant conflict with each other being border countries. Issues such as terrorism, immigration, and domestic violence have plagued the two ethnicities from living together peacefully.

The reasons for this conflict, would probably date back to 1914. In 1914, many European countries created official border lines for the continent of Africa known as the “1914 Scramble of Africa.” Kenya and Somalia were cut in a way that clans who shared the same language and culture were separated. In addition to the separation, tribes from Somalia and Kenya started fighting with each other over resources. Going to post 1960’s independence, the conflicts between the two border countries became wo even worse as Kenya along with other african nations sought policies to unify their countries within their border. Somalia wanted to unify all Somalis within and outside of their borders. The Somali government pushed the idea of “Pan Somali” for propaganda purposes. Between the year 1960-964, the Somali government sponsored guerilla attacks against Kenya to support their “Pan Somali” campaign. The Somalis were met with defeat and were powerless against their border countries.

With The guerilla campaigns by the Somalis came resentment from the Kenyan government. In 1980, Kenyan government forces entered the Somali ethnic region of Garissa District of Northern Kenya to allegedly arrest one man. Instead of one arrest, Kenyan forces
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