Somalia is not a country like any other; it has been described as one of the most homogeneous states in Africa, with 98% of its people described as Somali, with a common language, adherence to Islam as well as its cultural homogeneity. Somalia is neither African nor Arab, although it is located on the African continent and has often been considered Arab in some ways. As is the case of all nomadic societies of arid and semi-arid lands, Somali society is largely a product of its geographical and climatic environment, the land is very dry and generally does not permit agriculture, and as a result people move around with their herds of livestock, forever in search of good pasture and water. With no possibility of permanent settlement in cities, the nomadic and temporary mobility of Somali people has not been conducive to economic accumulation and the formation of political structure and as a result the constant movement implies frequent friction in the competition over scarce resources.

The opening of Suez Canal in 1869 saw the interests of European colonial powers in the Horn of Africa increase, which previously had been limited and consisted of a few different treaties with local rulers. Following the Berlin conference and the scramble for Africa in the nineteenth century, Great Britain, Italy and France completed for the territory of Somalia, arbitrarily dividing a linage-segmented but culturally homogeneous population into four district colonial units. The colonial powers started to increase their sphere of influence in the Somali speaking region and each colonial power seized a significant portion of Somalia. Great Britain possessed the Protectorate of British Somaliland in Northern Western Somalia and the Northern Frontier District in the North Eastern Province in Kenya, while the Italians colonised Southern Somalia. France possessed La Côte Française des Somalis or Djibouti as it later became known as after independence in 1977. Additionally, the regional colonial power Ethiopia colonised the Ogaden and Haud regions of Somalia, which to this date still remain part of Ethiopia and which has caused a number of subsequent wars between Somalia and its neighbour.

In 1960, the British conceded independence to the Somaliland Protectorate, while Italy relinquished control to the South. The former colonies joined to form the Somali republic. The democratic unity was short lived and collapsed within thirty years. In 1969, the democratically elected President, Abdirashid Ali Shermarke was assassinated in a Coup d’état and General Mohamed Said Barre, Head of the Somali Armed Forces assumed the head of state. During the Barre tenure, Somalia followed a course of reunifying all Somalia territory under a one flag. This was increasingly made difficult by colonial demarcations; the European Colonial powers had divided Somalia’s territory and had given to Kenya and Ethiopia respectively in the NFD and Ogaden regions. As a result of colonial demarcations, tensions grew between Somalia and its neighbouring states of Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti. As Cold War geopolitics intensified in Africa, the Horn became engulfed in period of hostilities as both the United States and the Soviet Union vied for a sphere of influence over Somalia. This was largely the result of Somalia’s strategic location along the oil routes from the Persian Gulf, as well as to halt Ethiopian socialist hegemony in the region. During the early 1970s, the Soviet Union aided and armed Somalia. Barre, in turn professed socialism to win Soviet military assistance. Subsequently Barre transformed the military dictatorship into a socialist one, where full-scale central planning ensued under the government policy of “scientific socialism”. This policy allowed the Somali government to build a strong army and paramilitary government. In 1977, Somalia and Ethiopia began a war over the disputed territory in the Ogaden Region. The Soviet Union armed and aided Barre’s attempts to annex Ethiopia’s ethnically Somali Ogaden Region. The US in turn supported the capitalist government of Ethiopia against the Soviet influenced Somali regime. However once the Soviet Union strategically switched support to Ethiopia’s new Marxist government, Somalia lost the Ogaden War and has to go back to colonial demarcations.

By the early 1980s the United States had replaced the Soviet Union as Somalia’s military patron. US military and economic aid to Somalia dramatically increased and totalled more than $400 million. Despite this, During the subsequent period, following the defeat to Ethiopia, the government intensified its reach in people’s ordinary life and slaughtered civilians, who posed threats to the government’s plans or political power and that this was achieved by the use of coercive intimidation to create artificial support for its activities, and forcibly relocated others to further the political or economic ends of Barre regime. The simmering conflicts among the Somali elite and rival militias lead to the formation of opposition parties, each drawing support from particular clan families. By 1988 the situation in Somalia rapidly deteriorated and broke out in a full-blown civil war, as government forces attacked major cities in Northern Somalia. Some of the most vicious government campaigns were waged against the former British Protectorate in Northern Somalia, home of the Somali National Movement (SNM). In retaliation the SNM launched a military offensive, entering many northern cities. The government in turn responded with extreme force, destroying the cities of Burao and Hargeisa. This precipitated a civil war, which displaced over a million people; many Somalis sought refuge in Ethiopia. While it’s estimated that the shelling and aerial bombardment killed over 72,000 people in Hargeisa alone. The civil war in Somalia was thus a manifestation of clan antagonism with no ethnic division.