In this post, Peter Maundu from HIPSIR traces the history and causes of the humanitarian crisis in Somalia. Apart from the legacy of colonialism and political repression, Maundu argues that the crisis in Somalia, although often attributed to environmental factors, is also to a large extent a man-made crisis that can be resolved if appropriate measures are taken.
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By Peter Maundu, Hekima Institute of Peace Studies and International Relations (HIPSIR)
Introduction
Somalia has been reeling from political instability that has degenerated into a humanitarian crisis. The country was an important colony of the Italians, British, as well as French colonialists due to its strategic location in furthering their trade interests, military expansion objectives, and conquest goals in Africa (Mathews, 2017; Wiafe-Amoako, 2019). As the colonialists scrambled for a share of the country’s territory, Somalia was partitioned into five sovereign spheres (Mathews, 2017). This move divided the natives since they acquired identities prescribed by their colonial masters, which affected their relations even after independence.
Irreconcilable differences that were hatched during the colonial periods have continued to hurt the modern Somalia Republic that was created by merging two colonies in 1960; the Somalia Italiana and the British Somaliland (See Figure 1). The people in these two regions did not have common experiences or colonial backgrounds. For instance, some people used English while others used Italian language. This made it difficult for the country to have an administrative language. It took over 10 years since the country gained its independence for Somali to become a written language despite the fact that all the people spoke it (Wiafe-Amoako, 2019). Furthermore, the British advanced their indirect rule in the northern part while the Italians forced the southerners to adopt the Italian law. Consequently, the northerners were more educated than the southerners. This increased the differences between them, which made unification difficult since the learned northerners took control of the influential or powerful government positions after independence. The number of political parties that were based on clan identities skyrocketed after independence resulting in further fragmentation of the country’s politics (Wiafe-Amoako, 2019). This explains why the efforts to bring together the Somali citizens in these two regions were unsuccessful due to their extreme political as well as social diversities that developed for about 75 years of colonization. In addition, the customary or tribal rulers that existed before the arrival of the colonialists were destroyed or altered. This, according to Mathews (2017), marked the genesis of a statehood crisis that has ravaged the country to date.
Somalia has never witnessed peaceful and democratic transition of political power under a stable government for over 50 years now. Mohamed Ibrahim Egal, who ruled the country as a prime minister between 1967 and 1969, was overthrown by Major General Mohamed Siad Barre (Wiafe-Amoako, 2019). Upon assuming office, Siad Barre quashed the country’s democratic institutions as well as its democratic personnel (Wiafe-Amoako, 2019). He became a dictator who nationalized many economic sectors of the country. Under his rule, state repression emerged. As a result, clans organized themselves to oppose his leadership. In 1978, a coup attempt failed, and opposition groups began to emerge. In 1988, Somalia was experiencing a civil war. The regime responded by killing over 50,000 people besides destroying infrastructures leading to economic stress. As the civil war continued, the country experienced severe drought that killed about half a million people between 1991 and 1992. Siad Barre’s regime destroyed the good relations that existed between different clans in the country. He was toppled in 1991. Ever since, Somalia has never had a stable government.
Somalia has been experiencing “one of the most complex and long-standing humanitarian crises” that the world has ever witnessed (OCHA, April 2019). The situation in the country can be best described as “complex emergencies” because the man-made crisis has also been intertwined with natural disasters. The repercussions of the humanitarian crisis in the country are manifested in form of violence, deaths, population displacements, economic breakdown, societies’ damage, constant pleas for aid, difficulties in access to people in need of aid, high level of insecurity, and so on.
Somalia Humanitarian Situation: A Man-Made Crisis
While the spells of meteorological drought that have affected Somalia in the recent past have been blamed for the famine that has affected many people in the country, food shortage in Somalia is a man-made crisis. Evidently, meteorological drought that is largely blamed on climate change is common in many places across the world that do not experience famine. For instance, 98% of California State experienced one of the worst droughts in the history of the US between 2012 and 2016 (Lund et al, 2018). The state suffered from massive water shortages, decline in agricultural production, and increased living costs. Despite the fact that the population density of California per square kilometer is four times that of Somalia (See Fig. 2), the US state did not experience the famine that Somalia has witnessed in the recent past. Contrary to the case of Somalia, California State and the US federal governments managed to intervene and ameliorate the suffering of the people. This shows that the humanitarian crisis in Somalia is largely man-made due to the following reasons.
(i) Human Displacements
The number of internally displaced Somali citizens as in December 2018 was 2.7 million. Most of these people do not get the assistance that they need besides living in constant fear of abuses by the Al-Shabab Islamist group. The militant groups forcefully recruit civilians. They also stage attacks that target civilians. In fact, over 1.5 million Somalis had already been internally displaced by 2016. This number is larger than the 2018 population of Bahrain (The World Bank Group, 2019). The Number of registered Somali refugees living in foreign countries as in December 2018 was 875,000, and this does not account for those who are not registered (CDC, 2019).
(ii) Civilian Deaths
About half of the 982 civilian deaths that occurred in Somalia by October 2018 due to attacks were caused by Al-Shabab. The rest were caused by ethnic clashes as well as officers who have been leading security operations across the country. The documented number of Somalia’s civilian deaths attributed to violent conflict in 2018 alone is almost equal to the entire population of the Vatican City as per the 2019 statistics. Since 1991, the number of Somalis who have died from violent conflict is more than the entire population of Djibouti (World Population Review, 2019; TRIAL International, 2017).
(iii) Human Rights Abuses
According to the 2019 Human Rights Watch report, human rights abuses in Somalia are rampant. They include extrajudicial killings, unlawful arrests and detentions, indiscriminate terrorist attacks, rapes, forceful recruitment of child soldiers, and so on.
(iv) Economic Breakdown and Society Damage
Wars and displacements of population in Somalia have resulted in destruction of housing and other infrastructural facilities. Many people have lost their livelihoods. Social networks or social capital in the country have also been destroyed. Education and health systems have collapsed. In addition, insecurity has increased (Becker & Ferrara, 2019). All these consequences are clear indications of the collapse of Somalia’s social and economic structures.
(v) Blockade of Humanitarian Aid
Despite the fact that many Somalis are in great need of aid, many humanitarian structures such as temporary shelters in the country have been destroyed (Human Rights Watch, 2019). Some volunteers and staff of humanitarian organizations are either kidnapped or even killed. This has forced some of these organizations to withdraw their services in the areas where they are greatly needed. Restriction of humanitarian actors to access civilians in need of aid has worsened the humanitarian crisis in the country. This is demonstrated in Figure 3 below that shows Somalia as one of the countries in the world with the highest access constraints to humanitarian aid.
Conclusion
Humanitarian crisis in Somalia is largely attributed to the lack of a stable government since 1991. If the country had a stable government, cases of displacements, civilian deaths, human rights abuses, economic breakdown, social damages, and blocking of humanitarian aid would be minimal. Furthermore, people would be in a better position to respond to meteorological drought since easier importation of agricultural products would supplement the agricultural production under irrigation. Security situation would be better and the activities of Al-Shabab and other terrorist organizations would be minimal. Nevertheless, there is a need to support more innovative and plausible methods of handling Somalia’s humanitarian crisis. In the past, affected populations in war-torn regions received humanitarian aid from governments, United Nations (UN), and aid agencies. However, poverty levels in such areas continued to deepen every year. In addition, the humanitarian aid provided has been hardly enough for the ever-increasing number of survivors of war who are still living in risky environments. As a result, Oxfam International (2019) proposed profound changes that seek to improve the outcomes in responding to the humanitarian crisis in Somalia and other countries. First, there is a need for increasing the commitment of all governments to international law in order to protect civilians in war-ridden regions in Somalia. Secondly, all countries in the world and especially those in Africa need to collectively ensure that responses to Somalia’s humanitarian crisis are not only fair but also well-coordinated. Thirdly, the people on the grassroots, including religious actors, need to be involved in responding to the crisis. These proposals have been backed by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) (2019). In addition, the ICRC emphasized on the need to focus more on: violence hotspots; investing more to empower survivors to be self-reliant; investing in sustainable financing of crises responses; deploying modern technology to avert future crises; and provision of help to people with invisible trauma.
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