Somalia Activities

Somalia Security Project

Since May 2009, JCCP has been working closely with the UNDP on the Community Safety Project (CSP) in Somalia. The CSP is a unique venture which aims to establish a system of effective public security by combining the expertise of local residents while respecting the traditional problem-solving methods of Somalia’s culture and society. The UNDP initiated the project, and JCCP has since been involved in its planning and framework.

It is difficult to form an objective assessment of the varying level of risk throughout Somalia and what causes it. Without knowing the reason behind the conflict, it is impossible to find a solution. However, many areas are beyond government control and too dangerous for foreigners to enter, rendering data collection problematic.
JCCP is therefore devising new methods for data collection and a system for analyzing and managing sourced information. In addition, training is being conducted for local NGOs in Somalia, based on the system developed.

Conflict in Somalia

The modern roots of the conflicts currently taking place in Somalia can be traced back to 1969, when Muhammad Siad Barre seized power of the country in a military coup, transforming the fledgling democracy into a Soviet-supported socialist dictatorship. In 1977, Barre launched a major offensive on Ethiopia in an attempt to annex the Ogaden region and reunite ethnic Somalis under one government, becoming known as the Ogaden War. Barre’s army was defeated after the Soviet Union offered military aid to Ethiopia, who had recently become a Marxist state, and was forced to retreat back into Somalia. This defeat acted as an impetus for a growing resistance movement against Barre’s increasingly totalitarian government, whose reliance on Cold War allies for aid and resources had left the country without a sustainable economy and had led Somalia to economic failure by the end of the Cold War. In 1991, Barre was ousted and exiled by a combined force of various clan-based armies.


After Barre was removed from power, the clans no longer had a unifying goal to rally behind, and instead of the country uniting under the leadership of a single political party or leader, southern Somalia was plunged into a violent power struggle between the warlords who led the multiple factions that had fought to remove Barre, leaving the country with no central government and no way to enforce laws or maintain peace. Resource conflicts that emerged during the civil war only served to escalate the violence between the warring clans and resulted in widespread famine, leading to international intervention in the form of the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM) I and II and a US-led Unified Task Force (UTF) in order to alleviate the famine. While these missions were initially successful in providing food aid, a dramatic increase in violence by Somali warlords resulted in the withdrawal of all UTF and UN forces by March 1995, leaving the country in civil war with only the politically-weak Transitional Federal Government (TFG) as a form of central government.


Since then, as various insurgent groups have fought over control of the country throughout the years, the TFG has struggled to maintain peace in Somalia. The most notable of these groups was the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), who sought to establish a government and legal system based on Islamic (Shari’a) law. Although they initially controlled a majority of the territory in Somalia, the ICU was forced to surrender much of it after the TFG invited Ethiopian troops to intervene in the conflict. This resulted in the ICU dissolving and splitting into two general ideological directions: the hardline Islamists splintered into militant groups, the largest two being Al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam, while the more moderate, less-militant members formed the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS). It was the Djibouti wing of this group that eventually brokered a peace agreement and power-sharing deal with the TFG in January of 2009 and enacted Shari’a law as Somalia’s official judiciary system just two months later. This deal included not only an expansion of the TFG Parliament (including many former ICU members) but also the appointment of a new Prime Minister for Somalia, Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, who gave many top positions to former ICU high-ranking officials. However, despite this, Al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam remain defiant against the TFG and reject any offers of negotiation, impeding any sort of cooperation between the groups.　


Since then, Somalia has seen almost daily attacks by Al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam, with civilians bearing the costs of conflict; more than 100,000 have been forced to flee their homes in the first quarter of 2010 alone. Over 1.5 million internally displaced people currently exist in Somalia, and more than half a million have fled to neighbouring countries, making nearly a quarter of Somalia’s 9.1 million citizens involuntarily displaced. Even with the aid of troops from the African Union (AU), the combined forces of the TFG and AU are largely underequipped to handle the frequent attacks, and the federal government currently maintains control over only a few sections of the capital city of Mogadishu and a small fraction of Somalia overall.

Although neighbouring countries have offered to intervene and provide military assistance, Somali citizens are overwhelmingly against the encroachment of their borders by foreign troops, especially Ethiopian, due to the political and cultural history of the region and various incidents that span generations but still continue today; during their insurgency, the ICU effectively painted the Ethiopian forces assisting the TFG as an enemy of all Somalis, and that stigma has not yet faded. The TFG and UN believe that allowing soldiers from Djibouti, Kenya, or Ethiopia would only cause further unrest and instability in the region, reducing the chances of success for the current national government. Al-Shabaab has launched constant attacks on Parliament and has vowed to take the Presidential Palace as their next target. Meanwhile, on June 30th, 2010 the TFG launched its first major offensive on Al-Shabaab in a bid to reclaim key areas of Mogadishu it has lost over the years. Furthermore, tensions between Al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam have developed into territorial battles between the two groups, entangling citizens throughout the country into the conflict. All of these factors have resulted in a dramatic escalation of violence in Mogadishu in the second half of 2010, with signs pointing to a continuation of these trends in the foreseeable future.


In the meantime, the attacks on Parliament, combined with a standoff between top government officials over Prime Minister Sharmarke’s refusal to comply with requests for resignation, have rendered the TFG virtually ineffective as a political entity, and in 2010 Somalia topped the Fund for Peace’s Failed States Index for the third year in a row. Additionally, illegal fishing and dumping of toxic waste in Somali waters by foreign vessels has severely constrained the ability of local fishermen to earn a living, and their violent response to the encroachment of these vessels into their territory has evolved into a profitable criminal industry; currently, marine piracy runs rampant off of Somalia’s coasts with no police force to control and suppress it.


In 2007, the African Union Peace and Security Council established the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) with the approval of the United Nations in an attempt to provide humanitarian aid and work towards a more secure political and social environment in Somalia. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has instituted a number of efforts to comprehensively address the political, social, and economic challenges currently facing Somalia, including the Recovery and Sustainable Livelihood Programme, the Rule of Law and Security Programme, the Governance Programme, and the Inclusive Growth and Development Programme. However, even with these efforts in place, they alone are not enough to relieve the effects of conflict in the region, as the violence between the TFG and insurgent groups and the instability plaguing Somalia show no signs of subsiding.

FAQ

1.What is the current political situation in Somalia?

Presently, Somalia has no stable central government; the internationally-recognized governmental body is the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), which controls only small sections of Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital city. Two autonomously functioning states also exist within Somalia: Puntland to the northeast, and the relatively stable Somaliland in the north. However, neither of these states is officially recognized as an independent state by foreign countries or international bodies. The rest of Somalia is controlled by militia groups, most notably Islamist fundamentalist guerrillas al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam, who are responsible for almost daily clashes with the TFG as well as amongst themselves. Furthermore, there is currently an ongoing standoff between top government officials over Prime Minister Sharmarke’s refusal to comply with requests for resignation, which has resulted in a legislative deadlock in Somali Parliament.


2.Why is Somalia still fighting?

The current conflict in Somalia centers around ideological differences between Islamic militant groups and the moderate-Islamist TFG regarding the degree to which Shari’a law should be implemented into the national governance and judicial systems; the TFG, originally a secular government, only introduced a moderate form of Shari’a as a concession to Islamic insurgent groups in a plea for unity and peace, while the al-Shabaab-controlled areas experience a much stricter version of the law where activities such as dancing, listening to music, and watching sports are strictly outlawed with severe consequences. Even with help from African Union (AU) peacekeeping forces, the TFG is extremely underfunded and understaffed and does not have the resources required to successfully quell the insurgency they are faced with on a daily basis.


3.Why is there so much piracy in waters around Somalia?

Piracy off the coast of Somalia is a relatively new phenomenon that has increasingly grown into one of the country’s most profitable industries over the past decade. After the fall of the Somali national government in 1991, many transnational corporations and other foreign bodies took advantage of the political instability and lack of law enforcement bodies and used Somali waters for illegal fishing practices and dumping of toxic and industrial waste. These activities severely constrained the ability of local fishermen to earn a living, and their frustrations eventually manifested in violent response to these foreign vessels. Over time, this evolved into piracy as a profitable criminal industry; the political and economic instability of Somalia not only makes piracy one of the most viable and appealing alternatives for Somali men looking for work, but the lack of any effective national enforcement body also ensures that piracy will only continue to grow until a stable government with the resources to target the illegal industry is put in place.


4.What are the effects of having no government on a country?

As the case of Somalia has proved, the effects of having no stable federal government are far-reaching; Somalia’s activities on an international scale and the establishment of a national governance and economic infrastructure are of course affected, but none feel the effects more so than the Somali citizens themselves. In 2010, Somalia topped the Fund for Peace’s Failed States Index for the third year in a row, and due to the conflict more than 100,000 have been forced to flee their homes in the first quarter of 2010 alone. Over 1.5 million internally displaced people currently exist in Somalia, and more than half a million have fled to neighbouring countries, making nearly a quarter of Somalia’s 9.1 million citizens involuntarily displaced. In addition to this, few economic prospects for Somalis exist, and many have turned to the burgeoning piracy industry off of Somalia’s coast as the best means of subsistence.


5.What international efforts have been undertaken to alleviate conflict in Somalia?

After the fall of the Barre regime, resource conflicts that emerged during the civil war only served to escalate the violence between the warring clans and resulted in widespread famine, leading to international intervention in the form of the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM) I and II and a US-led Unified Task Force (UTF) in order to alleviate the famine. While these missions were initially successful in providing food aid, a dramatic increase in violence by Somali warlords resulted in the withdrawal of all UTF and UN forces by March 1995.
Although neighbouring countries have offered to intervene and provide military assistance, Somali citizens are overwhelmingly against the encroachment of their borders by foreign troops, especially from Ethiopia, due to the political and cultural history of the region and various incidents from past generations and recent history alike; the TFG and UN believe that allowing soldiers from Djibouti, Kenya, or Ethiopia would only cause further unrest and instability in the region, reducing the chances of success for the current national government.

In 2007, the African Union Peace and Security Council established the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) with the approval of the United Nations in an attempt to provide humanitarian aid and work towards a more secure political and social environment in Somalia. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has instituted a number of efforts to comprehensively address the political, social, and economic challenges currently facing Somalia, including the Recovery and Sustainable Livelihood Programme, the Rule of Law and Security Programme, the Governance Programme, and the Inclusive Growth and Development Programme.


6.What are the challenges in resolving conflicts in Somalia?

There are numerous challenges involved in ending the current ongoing conflict in Somalia. Al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam have repeatedly reaffirmed that they have no desire to negotiate with the TFG and that its failure and collapse is their principle objective. This therefore makes negotiation a near impossibility at this moment in time, especially as the TFG and Puntland governments have both launched offensives against the groups in the second half of 2010. While appealing to insurgent groups or providing incentives for peace is most certainly a challenge, directly engaging them in armed combat, as the regional governments have chosen to do, presents its own set of difficulties. The militant groups the TFG faces not only have larger armies but also a greater pool of resources; the understaffed, underfunded TFG forces are only assisted by the AU peacekeeping force, which faces similar problems regarding funding, staffing, and logistical/strategic resources. With the majority of this fighting occurring in the capital city of Mogadishu, where the TFG and Parliament operate, the federal government is unable to focus its energy on stabilizing the nation’s governmental structures, establishing a sustainable economy, or improving the country’s infrastructure for Somali citizens. This, along with a high civilian casualty rate from the AU force’s activities, also makes it difficult to gain the support of the citizenry and turn them against the insurgent groups who control the majority of the country. These are only a few of the many challenges in resolving the ongoing conflict in Somalia.


7.What are Somaliland, Puntland, and Somalia- are they separate countries?

After the collapse of the Somali central government in 1991, the northern region of Somalia, formerly designated as British Somaliland before the Barre regime, reasserted its independence and declared autonomy from the state of Somalia. It has remained comparatively secure and stable and has held successful peaceful democratic elections, the most recent being in June 2010, which was deemed legitimate by multiple international observer organizations. However, despite a declaration of independence and a functioning, stable federal government, Somaliland remains to be recognized as an autonomous nation by any foreign state or international body. Despite their application being sent to the AU for official recognition as an independent state, the application has yet to be processed. Like Somaliland, Puntland formed an autonomous government in 1998 after numerous failures to create an overarching Somalian central government. However, despite having their own flag, central government, and territorial boundaries, Puntland has not requested nor applied for international recognition as an independent state separate from that of Somalia as Somaliland has.


8.What activities is JCCP doing in Somalia?

Since May 2009, JCCP has been working closely with the UNDP on the Community Safety Project (CSP) in Somalia. The CSP is a unique venture which aims to establish a system of security by combining the expertise of local residents while respecting the traditional manner of solving problems within Somalia’s culture and society. The UNDP set the wheels in motion, and JCCP has since been involved in its planning and framework.
It is difficult to form an objective assessment of the varying level of risk throughout Somalia and what causes it. Without knowing the reason behind the conflict, it is impossible to find a solution. However, many areas are beyond government control and too dangerous for foreigners to enter; rendering data collection problematic. JCCP is therefore devising new methods for data collection and a system for analyzing and managing sourced information. In addition, training is being conducted for local NGOs in Somalia, based on the system developed.