30 years of UN intervention in Somalia has not yielded lasting solutions
The jfa editorial board
United Nations Day, on October 24, marks the day on which the UN Charter entered into effect. Today, the jfa editorial board explores how UN intervention in Somalia and the peacekeeping missions UNOSOM I and II failed to yield any lasting solutions.
Historical background
In the 19th century, Britain and Italy colonised and divided ‘territory’ in Somalia into (British) Somaliland in the north and Somalia Italiana (Italian Somalia) in the south. After 76 years, the divided lands united into the Republic of Somalia and declared independence in 1960.
Somalia has now been independent for 61 years, 30 of which have been embroiled by civil war. While there are several complex social, economic, and political factors that led up to the outbreak of civil war in 1991, the Center for Justice and Accountability has noted that the conflict “bears the indelible mark of the region’s former colonial powers”.
After the country’s independence, foreign powers continued to intervene. During the Cold War, for example, Somalia became increasingly militarised as a result of receiving a high amount of military aid from the United States and the Soviet Union.
While Somalia has been referred to as “culturally homogenous” by outsiders, this kind of representation is misleading to the diversity of Somali people. There are distinct cultural, linguistic, and social structures among Somalis and these differences cannot be reduced into one distinct ethnic identity. Kinship ties, clans, or ‘clannishness’ (primacy of clan interest), define the social, organisational and legal structures of Somali society and institutions. Somali clans are fluid and ambiguous, making them hard to categorise.
Following a coup d’état in 1969 led by Mohammad Siad Barre, Somalia turned from a 62-party participatory democracy into a one-party state. President Siad Barre’s military regime attempted to remove clan-based divisions from Somali society and politics in order to rule a ‘united’ Somalia - through violence and repression. This, along with other economic and political factors, ultimately led to state collapse in 1991, and the ensuing power struggles and clan clashes resulted in civil war.
UNOSOM I: 1992-1993
The first UN peacekeeping mission, UNOSOM I, began in 1992 as an attempt to alleviate severe humanitarian needs created by civil war and drought.
The first UNOSOM mission was able to negotiate a ceasefire between opposing factions in the capital of Mogadishu. However, despite gathering aid, supplies, and deployment forces, the $43 million-intervention did not have much success in reaching people in need.
This was a result of several compounding challenges, such as difficulty in transporting goods past the airport and docks due to physical and sometimes, violent blocks from opposing factions, as well as financial extortion and an inability to guarantee the safety of UN personnel.
UN Peacekeeping noted that, “according to some estimates, as many as 3,000 people a day were dying of starvation” while “ stocked warehouses” with food and aid remained undistributed.
UNOSOM II: 1993-1995
A year later, a second mission, UNOSOM II was launched, following a brief US-led mission, UNITAF. This time, however, the UN authorised the use of force.
The $1.6 billion mission had a ‘highly ambitious mandate’: “restore order to Somalia, disarm Somali civilians, and build the foundation for a stable government”. During this intervention, humanitarian aid was selectively awarded to those who supported the mission, and several million dollars were either stolen or ‘wasted on overpriced and faulty goods’. Assuming the UN flag would protect them, troops were not heavily armed and this resulted in fatalities.
Part of the failure of UNOSOM II was the UN’s misunderstanding of the complexity of the crisis before it launched a full-scale intervention, and not getting authorisation for its operations from local leaders. Rather than adapting their conflict management approaches, the operation was said to be "driven by schedules set in New York". By March 1994, US and European participants withdrew their troops, and the mission ended in March 1995 without fulfilling the mandate it set out to accomplish.
The consequences of UNOSOM’s failed peacekeeping missions were felt beyond Somalia - in particular, the 1994 Rwandan genocide. With the international community, particularly the UN and US, being ‘haunted’ by the failures of the mission in Somalia, they became reluctant to finance peacekeeping missions and intervene in other African conflicts. When violence broke out in Rwanda in April of 1994, the situation on the ground was misinterpreted by American and UN observers. After 10 Belgian soldiers were killed, the fear of increasing the number of UN casualties made them ready to follow the Belgians out of Rwanda. Former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutrois-Ghali would later write that Belgium was “afflicted with the ‘Somali Syndrome’: pull out at the first encounter with serious trouble”.
Present day: Criticism of UNICEF PR stunts by Somali model Halima Aden
Supermodel Halima Aden grew up in Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya after fleeing Somalia with her family. In 2018, she became a UNICEF Ambassador to raise awareness about displaced children and childrens’ rights. That same year, she visited Kakuma camp and was disappointed to see that refugees were still being asked to ‘sing and dance for celebrities’ visiting.
In 2021, Aden spoke out about how she used to be photographed as a young child by UNICEF when she lived in Kakuma camp. In one interview with NPR, she compared the fashion industry with UNICEF, and shared, “They've been photographing me and using me since the time I was a baby in a refugee camp. I remember getting those headshots taken and it made me feel, it's very dehumanizing.” This, along with inauthentic and superficial portrayals of Hijabi women in the modeling industry, led her to resign from fashion modeling and from her position as an Ambassador with UNICEF.
"I just decided I'm done with the NGO world using me for 'my beautiful story of courage and hope'”, she told the BBC in an interview.
While the UN can deliver much-needed aid and humanitarian relief with its advantageous global position, it is crucial to critically examine the organisation’s historical and present day efforts in peacekeeping and humanitarian aid and highlight when it has failed to deliver positive outcomes for the people it claims to help.