A limited UN peacekeeping mission – the UN Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM) – was unable to stem the violence or address the famine.Signs that war was radically restructuring the state came in May 1991 when the SNM declared that the northern regions were seceding from the south to become the independent Republic of Somaliland (see box 1).In December 1992 the outgoing US administration authorised the deployment of US forces to support the beleaguered UN mission in Somalia.
Ostensibly launched for humanitarian reasons, the intervention also responded to the challenge that the collapsed Somali state posed to a supposed ‘new world order’, proclaimed by President George Bush at the end of the Cold War. Committee on Health and Human Rights, Mohamed Ahmed Jama, “Securing Mogadishu: Neighbourhood Watches,” in Whose Peace is it anyway? Connecting Somali and International Peacemaking Approaches, Accord 21, Conciliation Resources, 2010, 66.For further details on UNOSOM-sponsored local-level community-based reconciliation conferences, see Menkhaus, 'International Peacebuilding and the Dynamics of Local and National Reconciliation in Somalia,' International Peacekeeping, Vol. In the southern part of city, Aidid's forces battled those of In 1998, a homegrown constitutional conference was held in the northeastern town of In 2000, Ali Mahdi participated in another conference in Djibouti. While fragile and uncoordinated, these structures produced an incremental improvement in security, so that by the late 1990s the situation in much of Somalia was described as ‘neither war nor peace’.These developments were driven by a convergence of internal and external interests. They were opposed to the rise of the By June 2006, the ICU succeeded in capturing the capital, Mogadishu, in the Second Battle of Mogadishu. Somaliland is also seen as an autonomous state by many Somalis even though its natives go another step in pronouncing full independence. These produced two regional administrations: the short-lived Benadir Administration supported by Egypt and Libya; and the government of Puntland Federal State of Somalia.The Benadir Administration collapsed when its leadership failed to agree on modalities for reopening Mogadishu seaport, while in Puntland a combination of a community-driven political processes and strong leadership produced a functional administration.Somalis were also divided over the right approach. The article reviews international and regional reconciliation efforts in Somalia, and the impact of these on peace, conflict and governance.An important feature of the past two decades has been Over the past two decades the nature of the Somali crisis and the international context within which it is occurring have been constantly changing. The battle left 18 U.S soldiers dead and 84 wounded. Taking a lead from developments in Somaliland and Puntland, the RRA administration in Bay and Bakool regions and an all-Hawiye peace conference in Beletweyn in 1999, the approach sought to encourage the emergence of regional authorities as a first step towards establishing a federal or confederal Somali state.Donor and development organisations hoped to encourage the process by rewarding the areas of stability with ‘peace dividends’ of aid. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.The events that led to the 1992 intervention in Somalia began in 1991, when the Somali dictator The incessant conflict led to the destruction of the country’s agriculture and consequently to nationwide In April 1992 the UN humanitarian effort, known as Operation Provide Relief, arrived in Somalia. The RRA had originally set up an autonomous administration over the Bay and Bakool regions of south and central Somalia in 1999.