History of Somalia

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Map of present-day Somalia

The history of Somalia is closely linked to the history of the Somali people and thus also to the history of the neighboring peoples in Ethiopia , Kenya and Djibouti . It ranges from early inhabitants who left cave paintings thousands of years ago, to (presumably) the land of Punt , the immigration of the Somali, the introduction of Islam, the emergence of various sultanates and the colonial era, to the current civil war .

The Somalia timetable provides an overview in tabular form .

Early history

Detail of the cave paintings in Laas Geel

Apart from the details of the oral tradition, which is difficult to date, evidence of the settlement of the Horn of Africa before the beginning of the Christian era is scarce. The first traces of human civilization were discovered in Buur Heybe in southern Somalia. In the north, cave paintings have been found in Karin Heegan , in Laas Geel near Hargeysa and in Dhambalin and other places in the Togdheer region.

A first written mention of the area could be in the name of Punt , which in ancient Egyptian sources denotes a country with which Egypt from 3000 BC. It was established in the area of ​​today's Somalia or in Eritrea .

A port city called Opone ( Greek  Ὀπώνη ) was described in the 1st century AD by an anonymous commercial traveler from Alexandria in his travelogue Periplus Maris Erythraei . It is believed to be on the site of today's Hafun . From this city trade was carried out with Yemen , Phenicia , Nabatea , Greece , Rome and " Azania ", and even Indonesian and Malay traders frequented the place, which was strategically located on the trade routes through the Red Sea . The Greek sources - the Periplus, Ptolemy and Kosmas Indicopleustes - use the term " Berber " for the Horn of Africa and its inhabitants, as did early Arab geographers who called Somali "(black) Berbers".

The current inhabitants of Somalia, the Somali , trace their oral traditions back to immigrants from the Arabian Peninsula , through whom ultimately all Somali patrilinearly descended from the Koreishites - the tribe of Mohammed . According to this view, they immigrated from the north, displacing an existing population, which consisted of "Galla" ( Oromo ) and south of the Shabeelle River from Bantu . Linguistics, on the other hand, comes to the conclusion that the forerunners of the Somali came from the south-east of the southern Ethiopian highlands , where other ethnic groups live who, like them, speak Cushitic languages , and thus focuses on the Cushitic-African part of their ancestry. It is controversial how they immigrated to their present area and by when they had completed the settlement of the Horn of Africa. The traditions of the Somali regarding an Arab origin - which are similar to the myths of origin of other Muslim ethnic groups in Northeast Africa - reflect the later cultural influence and also mixing with Arabs, especially in the coastal cities, and in particular the importance of Islam for the Somali, as well as a confusion with later Migration from north to south.

Little is known about the pre-Somali population. The fact that Oromo lived in what is now Somalia before the Somali is disproved, as the Oromo did not begin their expansion until the 16th century, also from the southern highlands of Ethiopia. It is less clear how far north the expansion of the Bantu peoples reached in northern Kenya / southern Somalia. The Mijikenda , who today live on the coast of Kenya and Tanzania , refer in their myths to the place of origin Shungwaya , which is said to have been on the Jubba; While some researchers see Shungwaya as a Bantu state that was smashed by the Somali, others doubt the truthfulness of these traditions. Some ethnic minorities in southern Somalia, such as the Gabaweyn and Shidle , who outwardly differ from the Somali, are at least partly descended from an indigenous population prior to the Somali. However, it is unclear whether they originally belonged to the Bantu or also to the Kushitic language group. Christopher Ehret speculation about a native population of " Khoisan " (for which there is as yet there is no evidence), on the südkuschitisch-language ( English Dahaloan , derived from the name of the language Dahalo ) farmers and ranchers and hunters and gatherers - perhaps the precursor of today's Eyle - should have followed.

Pre-colonial period

The Somali developed their economy and way of life, which still exists today, which consists mainly of nomadic cattle farming and, in the south of what is now Somalia, agriculture in the area of ​​the Jubba and Shabeelle rivers . The combination of agriculture and livestock farming ( agropastoralism ) among the Rahanweyn in southern Somalia possibly corresponds more to the original way of life of the forerunners of the Somali, some of which later switched to pure livestock farming and nomadism; Earlier assumptions, however, assumed that the Rahanweyn had immigrated as nomads from the north and settled down. The Somali clan system was probably influenced by the patrilineal tribal society of the Arabs and superseded the original, possibly matrilineally organized society. Even in pre-colonial times, conflicts between clans, especially over scarce land and water, were not uncommon. The naturally occurring droughts in the region regularly led to hunger, especially among the nomads in northern and central Somalia.

Maritime trade and introduction of Islam

The Fakr-ad-Din Mosque in Mogadishu , built in 1269 (illustration from 1882)

The kingdom of Aksum extended to northwest Somalia at the height of its power (approx. 4th to 6th centuries), but little is known about the effects of its rule.

Through sea trade via coastal cities such as Zeila (Saylac) and Hobyo , the Somali came into contact with Arab and Persian influences, including Islam from the 7th century. Islam spread even further in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries with the arrival of Muslim patriarchs. By the 16th century, Zeila rose to become a trading center for coffee, gold, civet , ostrich feathers and slaves from Ethiopia ( see also : East African slave trade ) and the center of Islam in Somalia. Trade was conducted with the Middle East, India, and China.

The traveler Ibn Battuta visited the region and described Zeila in 1329 and, as part of a trip south along the East African coast, in 1331 Mogadishu ( Maqdashu ), which was very large. The Chinese admiral Zheng He passed by Somalia at the beginning of the 15th century, from where the giraffe that he brought to China from his travels to Africa may have come from.

Sultanates in Northern Somalia

In the 13th century, the Somali began to migrate southwards, which would continue into the 19th century. During this time, states began to form, in particular the Ifat Sultanate in Ethiopia and Northern Somalia, the forerunner of the Adal Sultanate led by the Muslim Somali and Afar . This stretched from its capital Zeila to Jijiga and Harar in what is now the Ethiopian Ogaden and for a long time remained peaceful in relation to the neighboring Christian Empire of Ethiopia. Relations between the two states deteriorated, however, when the Ethiopian Negus Isaak (Yeshaq) attacked Muslim settlements in the valley east of Harar and captured Ifat in 1415. After his victory, Isaac imposed tribute on the Muslims and had a hymn written in celebration of this victory. In this hymn, the word Somali appears for the first time in written form.

In the 16th century it was again the Muslims who attacked Ethiopia. Supported by the Ottoman Empire , led by Ahmed Gurey (Gran) , they penetrated far into the country, wreaking havoc and decimating the population. With the help of a Portuguese expedition under Cristóvão da Gama - a son of Vasco da Gama - and the use of cannons, Ethiopia finally managed to avert the conquest. After the fall of Ahmed Gurey at the Battle of Wayna Daga on February 21, 1543, the Muslims were repulsed. In the following time Adal split up into smaller states, including the Sultanate of Harar. Like the Ethiopian territories, this came under pressure from the Oromo , who now advanced from the south.

The Portuguese had sailed along the coast of Africa since the time of Henry the Navigator and had reached Somalia in this way. From the 16th century, Portuguese seafarers attacked Somali coastal cities. Zeila lost importance as a result of Portuguese attacks in 1517 and 1528 as well as raids by Somali nomads from the surrounding area and became the property of the Yemeni city of Mocha . Berbera took on his role, but also owned mocha. In turn, Yemen, and with it Mocha, came under Ottoman rule at times. In 1875, under Ismail Pasha , Egypt attempted an invasion of Ethiopia, with Harar and Zeila, but also Kismaayo, coming under Egyptian control for a short time.

Cities in southern Somalia

Representation of the market square of Mogadishu, 1882

See also : Cities on the East African Coast (800–1500)

Cities (city-states) such as Baraawe and Merka , which had existed since the Middle Ages, also gained in importance further south . Mogadishu in particular also radiated into its hinterland Banaadir (Benadir). From around 1550 to 1650 there was a state of the Ajuran - a tribe of the Hawiye  - with Kalafo in what is now Ethiopia as its capital, which stretched from the coast near Mogadishu via the lower Shabeelle Valley to its commercial center Hobyo. After the decline of the Ajuran state as a result of Portuguese raids, domestic political difficulties and the advance of nomads from the north, a smaller sultanate of Geledi-Digil ( Rahanweyn ) with Afgooye as its center was formed, Hobyo became independent.

The founding of Kismayo is attributed to the Bajuni , a subgroup of the Swahili society based on the coast alongside the Somali . In Mogadishu in particular, Arab and Persian immigrants settled and mixed with the locals.

From the 16th to the 18th century the Portuguese controlled Baraawe and Mogadishu until they lost their possessions in East Africa north of Mozambique to the Sultanate of Oman and Zanzibar respectively. In the 19th century, Mogadishu, Merka, Baraawe, Kismaayo and Warsheikh were under the control of Zanzibar. The Zanzibari suzerainty, like that of Mocha over some northern Somali cities, essentially consisted of collecting an annual tribute.

The sea trade with Zanzibar also brought black African slaves from East Africa into the country, who from the 19th century were increasingly used on export-oriented plantations in the Shabeelle Valley and whose descendants are today's “Somali Bantu”.

For their history see the main article: Somali Bantu .

Majerteen Sultanates

In the Bari region in the northeast and south of it, two sultanates of the Majerteen- Darod emerged from the middle of the 18th century , which rose in the middle of the 19th century and carried on a flourishing trade in cattle, ostrich feathers and gum arabic . One of the two was led by Boqor Ismaan Mahamuud , the other by his cousin Sultan Yuusuf Ali Keenadiid von Hobyo . The former benefited from support from Great Britain in exchange for protection for British ships that were stranded on its coast. At times it was almost destroyed by a civil war as a result of the power struggle between Boqor Ismaan Mahamuud and Keenadiid.

Colonial times

Map of the Gulf of Aden around 1860
The Horn of Africa around 1900

From the end of the 19th century, the area inhabited by the Somali experienced the division, which still has an effect today and is partially in place. Harar and thus all of Ogaden came under the rule of Ethiopia through the conquests of Menelik II . The south and east of what is now Somalia were colonized by Italy as Italian Somaliland , the north ( British Somaliland ) and Kenya by Great Britain and Djibouti ( French Somaliland ) in northwestern France . German claims to the entire Somali coast between Aluula and Buur Gaabo were given up in favor of Italy and Great Britain.

Colonization and resistance to it

The colonial powers had different motives. In general, after the opening of the Suez Canal, the importance of traditional trade routes through the Red Sea increased, which is why the interest of European colonial powers in this region grew. Great Britain wanted to control the north coast as a source of live cattle for food supply for its colony Aden and in 1884 concluded contracts with various clans there. France, even more so after it had been ousted from Egypt by Great Britain, sought Djibouti as a stopover for ships in order to strengthen maritime trade relations with its colonies in Indochina . The seizure of Djibouti was also intended to thwart British plans to build a railroad across Africa to get there.

Italy, on the other hand, had not been united as a state for a long time , had not yet been able to get hold of any colonies and therefore wanted to take possession of this previously uncolonized area ( see also : Italian East Africa ). In 1888 the Sultan Keenadiid of Hobyo agreed to an Italian protectorate , as did the ruler of the Majerteen Sultanate Osmaan Mahamuud in 1889. The Benadir Coast was added in 1892, and in 1905 Mogadishu became the capital of Italian Somaliland. In 1925 the region west of the Jubba ( Jubaland ) with Kismaayo as its center, which had previously been British as part of the Zanzibar Protectorate, was transferred to Italy. It existed briefly as a separate colony Oltre Giuba before it was incorporated as a province in Italian Somaliland in 1926.

Not all clans submitted to foreign rule without violence. In particular, the Dolbohanta (Dhulbahante) -Darod offered resistance. Its representative Mohammed Abdullah Hassan , called Mad Mullah by the British , waged a religiously and nationalistically motivated guerrilla war against the British, Italians and Ethiopians from 1899 to 1920. About a third of the population of Northern Somalia was killed in this war. Bombing by the Royal Air Force against the insurgent bases ultimately gave the conflict a decisive turning point. Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allah Hassan was driven to flight and died soon after. He became the hero of Somali nationalism.

Colonial rule

The British initially saw their Somaliland as little more than a meat supply station and limited themselves to indirect rule . The infrastructure was hardly developed under them. Until 1942 the administrative seat of their colony was the port city of Berbera , through which the cattle exports were carried out, while the interior remained largely untouched. The Italians built banana, sugar cane and cotton plantations in southern Somalia and founded some settlements, such as Jawhar . The slavery was abolished under colonial rule, but especially the Bantu were used for forced labor on the plantations in Italy after the fascist takeover, since few Somalis for voluntary wage labor were ready. After Mogadishu was made the capital of the colony, trade flows increasingly shifted there, whereas the ports in the northeast, such as Hobyo, became less important.

1935–1936 led the fascist Italy of Italian Somaliland and Eritrea out of the Italian-Ethiopian war . It brought Ethiopia and from 1940 to 1941 also British Somaliland under its control. Thereupon Great Britain occupied Italian Somaliland in the Second World War and administered the area from 1941 to 1950 in addition to its own Somaliland colony. During this time attempts were made to introduce a democratic system, in 1943 the Somali Youth League (SYL) was founded as Somalia's first political party. She was to play an important role in gaining independence and thereafter, especially since she was able to work across clan boundaries for her goals.

Although Italian Somaliland was still legally an Italian colony, it was decided at the Potsdam Conference in 1945 not to return it to Italy. Instead, it was made a trust territory under Italian administration by the UN General Assembly in 1949 (1950–1960). The SYL, which was striving for immediate independence, opposed this decision unsuccessfully. In the last decade before independence, significant advances were made through UN development aid, for example in the Somali education system . To commemorate this support, the flag of Somalia is modeled on that of the United Nations.

independence

Flag of Independent Somalia

Somalia and Greater Somalia

There were efforts within the Somali population to abolish the division of their territory and to unite all Somali in one state ( Greater Somalia ). The SYL also supported this goal. British Somaliland, which had become independent on June 26, 1960, united on July 1, 1960 with Italian Somaliland, which had become independent on that day, to form the state of Somalia. The new state laid down the striving for the unification of all Somali territories in its constitution. Kenya, however, retained its Somali-settled part of the country when it gained independence in 1963 , and in Djibouti the majority of the Issa- Somali population achieved independence from France in 1977, but not annexation to Somalia.

In general, there was great interest in politics among the Somali population. Women were politically active to a limited extent; they had the right to vote in the formerly Italian-ruled part of the country since 1948 and in the formerly British part since 1963. National integration caused difficulties, as the differences between the less developed north and the more developed south and east were pronounced. The north, mainly inhabited by Isaaq , saw itself at a disadvantage compared to the south in the whole of Somalia.

Democratic period (1960-1969)

Aden Abdullah Osman Daar , a member of the SYL, became the first president of independent Somalia . Under the influence of nationalist forces, he held on to Somali territorial claims against neighboring countries, which isolated the country in the region. 1963–1967 were active in the " Shifta War " in northeast Kenya , supported by Somalia, and from February to April 1964 Somalia and Ethiopia waged a brief border war. In the same year, Ethiopia and Kenya signed a defense agreement against Somalia. In addition, Osman Daar relied on good relations with the Soviet Union . This brought him into conflict with Abdirashid Ali Shermarke - also from the SYL - who preferred Somalia's non- alignment and replaced him after the 1967 elections.

Shermarkes Prime Minister Mohammed Haji Ibrahim Egal - an Isaaq from the Somali National League (SNL) who had already been the first Prime Minister under Osman Daar - managed to ease relations with neighboring countries. The domestic clan and party rivalries continued, however. Corruption and nepotism were not uncommon in the National Assembly - something that seemed normal to some in a society in which ancestry and kinship are important, but caused displeasure in others. The political landscape was fragmented into over 60 parties, most of which essentially represented the interests of their subclan and their area. In particular after the municipal and national assembly elections in March 1969, the parties accused each other of electoral fraud.

Reign of Siad Barres (1969–1991)

On October 15, 1969, Shermarke was killed by a bodyguard. Subsequently, on October 21, pro-Soviet military under Siad Barre took power. This initially leaned on the Soviet Union, tried to introduce a " scientific socialism " and to push back the traditional influence of the clans. However, he continued to base his power on his own clan of the Marehan Darod and on the Ogadeni and Dolbohanta Darod - the so-called "MOD Alliance" - while the previously politically particularly important Majerteen Darod lost influence.

Actions by the Barre government to promote education in Somalia were initially popular. In 1972 the Somali language was standardized and written down in order to strengthen it as the national language . Somalia thus embarked on a separate path towards most African states, which retained the official languages ​​introduced by the colonial rulers.

1974–1975 drought led to hunger and great livestock losses , especially in the northeast of the country. In 1976 power formally passed from the military government to the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party , but in reality it remained with Siad Barre and his followers.

Barre waged another war for Ogaden against Ethiopia, which Somalia lost in 1976 / 77–1978 . The communist Derg regime of Ethiopia was supported by the Soviet Union and Barre - after he broke with the Soviet Union because of their support for Ethiopia - by the USA. The consequences of the Ogaden War were thousands of deaths, high costs for Somalia and the influx of over 650,000 refugees from Ethiopian territory. From 1980 Somalia granted the USA rights of use for airfields and port facilities (including Berbera in the north of the country), in return the government received extensive support, military and development aid from the USA and other western states. During this time Somalia, which like other developing countries had been in debt since the 1970s , also switched from socialism to an economic policy based on the guidelines of the International Monetary Fund . Corruption and nepotism increased sharply, while the economic situation deteriorated due to the consequences of war, persistently high military spending, drought and unsuccessful economic policies.

Inside, Siad Barre ruled dictatorially. Its popularity declined especially after the Ogaden War. In 1978 some army officers, mainly Majerteen-Darod, attempted to overthrow his government. This reacted by deploying the special unit of the Red Berets (somali: Duub Cas ) on the Majerteen and destroying water reservoirs in their area in Mudug . One of those involved in the coup attempt, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed , escaped to Ethiopia and led an Ethiopia-backed military offensive of the Somali Democratic Redemption Front (SSDF) in the border regions of Mudug, Galguduud and Hiiraan in 1982 . The United States then supported the Somali army with substantial arms deliveries to fend off the alleged Ethiopian invasion.

Fall of Siad Barres

The Isaaq in the former British northern Somalia continued to feel marginalized and oppressed. Isaaq in exile founded the Somali National Movement (SNM) in 1981 , which aimed to overthrow the Barre regime and, from Ethiopia, developed increasing guerrilla activity in northern Somalia. When it had to leave its military bases as a result of an improvement in relations between Barre and Ethiopia, the SNM began a major offensive in 1988 and brought large parts of northern Somalia under its control. The government responded with extensive retaliatory measures against the Isaaq, culminating in the bombing of the cities of Burao and Hargeysa . Around 50,000 people died in the process. Hundreds of thousands of Northern Somalis fled to Ethiopia, where Hartisheik temporarily became the largest refugee camp in the world.

The SSDF, which also had to leave Ethiopia, took control of northeast Somalia, where it has remained the dominant power ever since.

The Hawiye clan in the south, although initially on the side of the government, was hit by repression. Exiled Hawiye founded the opposition United Somali Congress (USC), which led a rebellion in 1989. Protest rallies and riots broke out in the capital Mogadishu, to which the state apparatus responded with massacres of demonstrators and civilians and arbitrary death sentences against critics of the regime. To secure his power, Siad Barre also used the divide and rule tactic by pitting clans against one another, namely the Hawiye against the Darod. Because of the human rights violations, and because he had lost his role as an ally after the end of the Cold War , the United States distanced itself from Barre. Without US support, it came under even more pressure from various rebel movements. His control of the country steadily dwindled until he only controlled Mogadishu, which was surrounded by the USC. On January 26, 1991, Barre was deposed and eventually fled Somalia.

Civil war

State collapse

The various anti-barre movements had agreed in advance to form a joint follow-up government. This failed, however, when the USC, led by the Hawiye Mohammed Farah Aidid and Ali Mahdi Mohammed , claimed victory over Barre and thus the majority of power for itself. The other opposition groups did not recognize the Provisional Government formed by the USC. Under the leadership of the SNM, the north of the country unilaterally declared its independence as Somaliland , which was not recognized internationally. The USC itself split between the Abgal and Habre Gedir Hawiye subclans after Ali Mahdi Mohammed (Abgal) proclaimed himself president without the consent of Aidids (Habre Gedir). Siad Barre's defense minister and son-in-law Siad Hersi "Morgan" continued to fight in the south on the Barres side. Somalia split into contested spheres of power of clans and warlords and their militias.

Foreign interventions (1992–1995)

German UN soldiers in Matabaan for the inauguration of the well on December 18, 1993

For the population, the fighting resulted in a deterioration in the supply and security situation up to and including famine in southern Somalia . Drought aggravated hunger. From 1992 the United Nations tried to secure the delivery of food aid and restore peace as part of the UNOSOM mission. When various Somali warring parties turned against the UNOSOM and brought the mission into serious difficulties, the USA offered to put together a multinational force UNITAF under its own leadership for support. At the end of 1992 UNOSOM was subordinated to UNITAF. Parts of the Somali population, however, saw UNOSOM / UNITAF as an occupying power and also subordinated the USA in particular to less noble motives such as gaining control over oil stocks or the permanent establishment of military bases. The US also drew allegations of partiality when it specifically turned against Aidid. They withdrew after the events of the “ Battle of Mogadishu ” in October 1993, and in 1995 UNOSOM II also had to withdraw. Since then, Somalia has been regarded as a typical example of a " failed state ".

Separatisms: Somaliland, Puntland, Maakhir and Southwest Somalia

Flag of the de facto independent Somaliland

Only in the de facto independent Somaliland in the north has it remained relatively peaceful since 1996 - when the conflicts between SNM factions and between the minority clans of the Dir and Darod and the Isaaq majority were resolved. A democratic system was established there, in free elections in 2003 Dahir Riyale Kahin was elected president and successor to Mohammed Haji Ibrahim Egal . Parliamentary elections were held in 2005.

The example of Somaliland contributed to the fact that Puntland in the northeast, under the leadership of the Harti Darod clan, declared itself an autonomous state within Somalia in 1998 and formed its own regional government. 2001-2003 there was a confrontation between Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and Jama Ali Jama , both of whom claimed the presidency in Puntland.

In the controversial border area between Puntland and Somaliland , there have been increased confrontations since 2003. In this border area, Maakhir declared itself independent as a further part of Somaliland and Puntland in 2007 .

The fighting continued in the rest of the country. In southwest Somalia , Aidid's son and successor Hussein Mohammed Farah , the Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA), the Juba Valley Alliance , Siad Hersi and others fought each other. The RRA tried in the meantime to establish its own state in Southwest Somalia, but this failed because of the presence of numerous different clans and warlords in the area. Abgal and Habre Gedir Hawiye and private militias fought in Mogadishu.

Transitional government (2000 to present)

In 2000, after peace negotiations in Arta , Djibouti, a transitional government made up of representatives of various clans was formed, which until 2004 had its seat in exile in Kenya. However, it was never able to prevail effectively because it did not find the support of all warring parties. Hussein Mohammed Farah and the RRA formed the "counter-government" SRRC in Baidoa , which fought the transitional government until 2003. After reconciling with the SRRC and other parties, the transitional government was able to move its seat to Baidoa in 2005. The interim president was Abdikassim Salat Hassan from 2000–2004 , followed by Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed , the former president of Puntland. The latter joined the interim government and continues to strive for autonomy within Somalia.

On December 26, 2004, the Somali coast was also hit by the tsunami in the Indian Ocean , resulting in around 300 deaths and damage, particularly in Hafun . As a result, around 50,000 Somalis were dependent on help.

Union of Islamic Courts (2006)

Since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 , events in Somalia have increasingly been viewed from the perspective of the “ war on terror ”. The unstable country is seen as a possible haven for Islamist terrorists. Against this background, the United States witnessed the rise of the Islamic Courts Union , an association of Sharia -Gerichten that locally the Shari'a enforce privilege, with concern and supported at times the " Alliance for the Re-establishment of peace and against terrorism ," a loose association of warlords against the Union.

Nevertheless, in 2006 the Union was able to take Mogadishu and large parts of the country. In the parts of the country that it ruled, peace reigned for a time, but fighting continued on the borders between the powers of the transitional government and the Union of Islamic Courts.

Intervention of Ethiopia (December 24, 2006 to January 2009)

Sections of the Union of Islamic Courts called for jihad to conquer Ogaden. These threats and fears that Ethiopia's own Muslim population might be taken over by Islamists led Ethiopia to declare war on the Union on December 24, 2006 and invade Somalia. The USA, for which Ethiopia is an important regional ally in the "war on terror", approved this intervention. The Union was swiftly and largely ousted from power, and the interim government was able to enter Mogadishu for the first time.

However, there she was soon confronted with attacks from Islamists and other opponents. These fighting escalated into open warfare and resulted in the flight of hundreds of thousands from the city. In particular, more moderate sections of the Union of Islamic Courts formed the alliance for the re-liberation of Somalia in exile in Eritrea , while the militant underground organization al-Shabaab emerged from the more radical sections . In the course of 2008, these groups brought large parts of southern and central Somalia under their control. The interim government only controlled some parts of Mogadishu and the city of Baidoa . At the end of 2008, President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed resigned after he had been criticized for his lack of success and had fallen out with Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein .

Parts of the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia were negotiating with the transitional government about a power-sharing and the withdrawal of the Ethiopian troops. These negotiations resulted in the withdrawal of the Ethiopian troops in January 2009. Alliance representative Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was elected as the new president. However, al-Shabaab continued to fight the interim government. In the areas it controls, it enforces a strict interpretation of the Sharia .

Federalization (August 2012)

On August 1, 2012, Somalia's parliament adopted a new constitution. With it, the transitional government of Somalia was replaced and for the first time an at least formally normalized state order was restored. Somalia was converted into a Federal Republic, although initially no sub-states were formed. According to the constitution, the MPs should determine how many states Somalia would have. However, two or more regions could merge into states on their own.

In August 2013, Jubaland was the first state to be recognized by the federal government as part of a reconciliation agreement. It consists of the Gedo , Jubbada Hoose and Jubbada Dhexe regions . A year later, a second state was created in central Somalia to include the regions of Mudug and Galguduud . The local de facto regimes of the Ahlu Sunna Waljama'a militia, Galmudug and Himan & Heeb are to jointly establish new structures.

Starvation catastrophe from 2015

After a famine in 2011, another severe famine followed in the wake of the drought in southern Africa and in East Africa from 2015 . In May 2017, donor countries held a conference in London to ensure supplies to the population.

literature

  • Enrico Cerulli and GSP Freeman-Grenville: "Makdishu", in: Encyclopaedia of Islam , 2nd ed. Vol. VI, Leiden 1991, 128-9.
  • Mohammed Haji Mukhtar : Historical Dictionary of Somalia (New Edition) , Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, NJ, 2003, ISBN 978-0-8108-4344-8
  • Ioan M. Lewis: A Modern History of the Somali , James Currey, Oxford 2002.
  • Ali Jimale Ahmed (Ed.): The Invention of Somalia , Red Sea Press 1995, ISBN 0-932415-99-7
  • Maria Brons: Somaliland: Two years after the declaration of independence , Institut für Afrika-Kunde, Hamburg 1993, ISBN 978-3-928049-23-8

Web links

Commons : History of Somalia  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

swell

General:

Individual evidence:

  1. ^ Dierk Lange, Ancient Kingdoms of West Africa , Dettelbach 2004, pp. 251–261.
  2. ↑ Steven A. Brandt: "Early Holocene Mortuary Practices and Hunter-Gatherer Adaptations in Southern Somalia", in: World Archeology , Volume 20 (1), Archeology in Africa (June 1988).
  3. ↑ Xavier Gutherz, J.-P. Cros & J. Lesur: "The discovery of new rock paintings in the Horn of Africa: the rockshelters of Las Geel, Republic of Somaliland", in: The Journal of African Archeology, Vol. 1 (2) 2003 ( Memento from 2. February 2014 in the Internet Archive ).
  4. ^ Sada Mire: "The Discovery of Dhambalin Rock Art Site, Somaliland", in: African Archaeological Review , Vol. 25, Nos. 3-4, December 2008 doi: 10.1007 / s10437-008-9032-2 .
  5. ^ Tadesse Tamrat: "Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn", in: The Cambridge History of Africa: From c. 1050 to c. 1600 , The Cambridge History of Africa 3, 1986, pp. 134-137.
  6. ^ A b Ioan M. Lewis: The Somali Conquest of the Horn of Africa , in: The Journal of African History , Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 213-230 (1960)
  7. ↑ For the different points of view on the route of the Somali expansion cf. Günther Schlee : Somaloid history: oral tradition, Kulturgeschichte and historical linguistics in an area of ​​Oromo / Somaloid interaction , in: Herrmann Jungraithmayr and Walter W. Müller: Proceedings of the Fourth International Hamito-Semitic Congress, Marburg, Sept. 1983, Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamin BV ( Current issues in Linguistic Theory 44), pp. 265-315. Bernd Heine gives in Linguistic Evidence on the Early History of the Somali People (in: Hussein M. Adam (Ed.): Somalia and the World: Proceedings of the International Symposium , National Printing Press , Mogadischu 1979, pp. 23–33) states that the Somali had colonized the Horn of Africa as early as 100 AD, in other works he writes that their expansion on the Horn was completed by the year 1000 at the latest.
  8. ↑ cf. Ulrich Braukämper: Islamic History and Culture in Southern Ethiopia. Collected Essays , Göttinger Studien zur Ethnologie 9, 2003, ISBN 978-3-8258-5671-7
  9. ↑ Günther Schlee: Identities on the move: clanship and pastoralism in northern Kenya , Manchester University Press 1989, ISBN 9780719030109 (p. 43f.)
  10. ↑ Christopher Ehret: The Eastern Horn of Africa, 1000 BC to 1400 AD: The Historical Roots , in: Ali Jimale Ahmed (Ed.): The Invention of Somalia , Red Sea Press 1995, ISBN 978-0-932415-99-8 , Pp. 233-256
  11. ^ Herbert S. Lewis: The Origins of the Galla and Somali , in: The Journal of African History , Vol. 7, No. 1 (1966)
  12. ↑ Abdi Kusow : The Somali Origin: Myth or Reality, in: Ali Jimale Ahmed (Ed.): The Invention of Somalia , Red Sea Press 1995, ISBN 0-932415-99-7
  13. ^ Countrystudies.us: Somalia - Coastal Towns
  14. ↑ Human Rights Watch country report on Somalia 1992 #The Impending Famine; quoted there from M. Boothman: A Historical Survey of the Incidence of Drought in Northern Somalia , in Ioan M. Lewis (Ed.): Abaar. The Somali Drought , London 1975.
  15. ↑ Countrystudies.us: Ethiopia - The Aksumite State
  16. ^ Countrystudies.us: Somalia - Emergence of Adal
  17. ^ Nordic Africa Institute: Local History of Ethiopia : Harar
  18. ^ Lee V. Cassanelli: The Ending of Slavery in Italian Somalia , in: Suzanne Miers, Richard Roberts (Ed.): The End of Slavery in Africa , ISBN 978-0-299-11554-8
  19. ↑ Countrystudies.us: Somalia - Dervish Resistance to Colonial Occupation
  20. ^ Countrystudies.us: Somalia - The Colonial Economy
  21. ^ Countrystudies.us: Somalia - Trusteeship and Protectorate: The Road to Independence
  22. ^ Countrystudies.us: Somalia - From Independence to Revolution; Problems of National Integration
  23. ^ Countrystudies.us: Somalia - Pan-Somalism
  24. ^ Countrystudies.us: Somalia - The Igaal Government
  25. ^ Number from Countrystudies.us: Somalia - Foreign Relations ; the Barre government inflated numbers up to 1.8 million in order to receive more humanitarian aid.
  26. ^ Catherine Besteman: Unraveling Somalia , ISBN 978-0-8122-1688-2 (esp. Pp. 199–206)
  27. ↑ A life-or-death search for water in drought-parched Somalia - in pictures. The Guardian, May 10, 2017, accessed May 12, 2017
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on December 29, 2006 .