Somalia

A comprehensive analysis of the effects—and aftermath—of the Cold War in the Horn of Africa during an era of mass-produced AK-47s and ICBMs.

From a quiet Indian Ocean backwater that had once been an Italian colony, Somalia remained aloof from the kind of power struggles that beset countries like Ghana, the Congo, Guinea, Algeria and others in the 1970s. Overnight, that all changed in 1969 when the army, led by Major General Siad Barre, grabbed power. His first move was to abrogate all security links he might have had with the West and to invite Moscow into his country as an ally. But when Siad Barre invaded Ethiopia’s Ogaden Province—Addis Ababa was then Washington’s staunchest friend in Africa’s Horn—the Soviets had had enough. To the consternation of the West, they abandoned Somalia and embraced Ethiopia, which resulted in the Russians giving full support in the Ogaden War to Addis Ababa and establishing the largest airlift of arms to an African country since the Six-Day War.

For more than a decade thereafter conditions within Somalia deteriorated. Various tribal leaders established themselves as “war lords,” some with Soviet support, others getting succor from Western sources. It got so bad that in 1992 the United Nations eventually stepped in with Operation Restore Hope, a multinational force created for conducting humanitarian operations in Somalia. The move was always controversial with many tribal leaders retaining either clandestine Soviet links or receiving aid from radical Arab forces that included al-Qaeda. Though the United Nations and the African Union (AU) both maintain a strong presence in the country, hostilities—and killings—go on.