Abstract
Between January 1991, when military dictator and president of the Somali Democratic Republic Mohamed Siad Barre’s regime was ousted, and early 2012, when a new set of principles were adopted to determine the shape of Somalia’s future government, a broad range of conflict-management initiatives failed to bring either stability or peace to Somalia. Indeed, Somalia in early 2012 was in much the same situation as it had been in early 1991: There was no legitimate central government, the country was politically fragmented, its people endured extreme poverty and various forms of armed conflict, it was awash with arms (despite an international arms embargo), there were intense food security and environmental challenges, and the country lacked even the most basic infrastructure. Not surprisingly, a large proportion of Somalis fled the country. In sum, since 1991, Somalia has become the infamous poster child of state failure; the world’s collapsed state par excellence.1
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Notes
I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali (Oxford: James Currey, 4th edition, 2002)
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© 2013 Jane Boulden
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Williams, P.D. (2013). Somalia. In: Boulden, J. (eds) Responding to Conflict in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137367587_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137367587_12
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