Draft:Somali Civil War (1991–1992)



The 1991 to 1992 period of the Somali Civil War was a clan-based warlord conflict between various armed factions within Somalia.

Following Somalia's defeat in the Ogaden War, discontent with Siad Barre's government increased drastically, culminating in the Somali Rebellion. Many rebel groups initially cooperated to fight Siad Barre's government, and in December 1990, the USC launched a campaign in the capital, Mogadishu, to oust Barre, removing him from power completely on 26 January, 1991. After Barre's overthrow, however, the USC unilaterally appointed Ali Mahdi Muhammad as interim president, without consulting other rebel groups- as such, the others declined to cooperate with it, including another faction of the USC headed by Mohamed Farrah Aidid. The USC soon attacked the SPM and SSDF in February 1991, sparking a renewed war between the former rebel factions. Barre returned and allied with the SPM to attempt to retake power, but the SPM was unable to seize Mogadishu. The Aidid-Mahdi split later resulted in devastating armed battles in Mogadishu from November 1991 to March 1992, that left over 14,000 dead, according to Human Rights Watch.

The fighting precipitated a catastrophic famine that left hundreds of thousands dead in Somalia from 1991 to 1992. The famine and heavy fighting resulted in greater international attention to the crisis, and eventually gave way to the United Nations intervention, in the form of UNOSOM I, to send humanitarian aid, and a minor military force to guard the humanitarian aid from looting.

January–November 1991: Reconciliation attempts & descent into civil war
The overthrow of Siad Barre came with widespread jubilation in Mogadishu. Although fighting was still reportedly ongoing in Brava, celebrations of victory continued, especially with the swearing-in of Ali Mahdi as the interim President. Some civilians who evacuated during the fighting returned, but the city was in ruins due to the battle.

The USC called for "justice, equality, unity and democracy" in the aftermath of Barre's overthrow, and largely advocated for a return to normalcy. Ali Mahdi, of the USC, declared himself the new interim President of Somalia on 30 January. However, the Somali National Movement, one of the northern rebel groups, disputed this claim to the presidency, claiming that they hadn't been consulted on the decision. The other main rebel movement, the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM), also denounced Mahdi's claim to the presidency, stating that there had been an agreement for all rebels to convene and elect a leader. Even another member of the USC, Mohamed Farrah Aidid, strongly opposed the declaration- Aidid had been elected to be the chairman of the USC at a congress near the border with Ethiopia, but his position as the chairman was not recognized by USC forces in Mogadishu. Aidid's refusal to support Mahdi's declaration would serve as a signal of future inter-USC fighting between Mahdi and Aidid beginning in November of 1991. Nevertheless, the USC began to make attempts at joining the other rebel groups that fought Siad Barre, in order to form a new, united government. It claimed to have formed a caretaker government as a necessity; a national conference among the former rebel movements was scheduled for February 18. During fighting between the SPM and the SSDF against the USC, the USC made an attempt to set up a conference in order to end the civil war in Somalia in March, but none of its most relevant rivals participated, and the civil war continued.

The USC launched a surprise attack against the SPM from the southwest (rather than the main road from Mogadishu) on 6 February, in Afgoi, as artillery and mortar fire was exchanged in the clash. On 10 February, the USC captured Afgoi, repulsing the SPM decisively. Reports that Siad Barre may have been attempting to align with the SPM to return to power soon arose. The USC continued a sweep beyond Afgoi, against Gedo and Kismayo as well, and the offensive was able to seize wide swaths of central and southern Somalia. A Darod-dominated, largely Barre-loyalist coalition named the Somali National Front was formed in mid-February, and began to clash with the Hawiye-dominated parts of the USC, launching a major offensive north against the USC in late-February. They claimed to repel a USC advance on the SNF-held city of Kismayo in March, and pushed the frontline to Brava. They soon seized Shalambood on 22 March, where 170 USC fighters reportedly surrendered, and began an advance on Mogadishu.

Meanwhile, confrontations between the Majeerteen-dominated Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF) and the USC began on 26 February of 1991. The USC attacked the city of Galkayo, and claimed to have seized it on 3 March. A group called Concerned Somalis claimed that the USC sent 1,000 "highly trained commandoes" to indiscriminately kill civilians in the city, while also indiscriminately shelling the city with artillery. On 31 March, Aidid's faction launched a major offensive into the Mudug and Nugal regions, attacking Galkayo again and killing and wounding around 970 people. An alliance between the SSDF and the SPM soon grew out of opposition to the USC's aggression, and the SSDF participated in operations against the USC. The SSDF and SPM reached Afgoi again on 8 April, but lack of ammunition for the SNF, and disunity among the ranks, allowed the USC to counterattack, striking them, seizing Kismayo on 24 April, and the SNF was routed back to Bardere and the Gedo region, near Kenya, where the USC was unable to expel the remaining fighters.

The USC maintained control of territory stretching from Mogadishu to Baidoa to Kismayo, but could not make progress against the SSDF, which held the regions of Bari, Mudug, Nugal, Sool, and Sanaag. In addition, it would soon lose Kismayo and Brava to the SNF in June and July, 1991.

Fighting between Ali Mahdi-aligned forces and Aidid-aligned forces first occurred in a major quantity in September of 1991. From 4 September or 5 September to 8 September, Mahdi's forces launched an attack on Aidid's headquarters in Mogadishu, launching multiple days of fighting that was ended by intervention from the Hawadle and Murusade clans, who sent neutral clan militias into the city to stop the fighting. It was believed that up to 300 were killed and 1,200 injured in the fighting, which occurred in spite of neither Mahdi nor Aidid having an "obvious interest in provoking the clashes", as Africa Confidential wrote- Aidid's best forces were engaged outside of Mogadishu at the time, and Mahdi did not want to engage in battles it may lose rather than going with a political framework.

November 1991–December 1992: Escalation
The first scene of major fighting in Mogadishu following the overthrow of Siad Barre was between two opposing factions of the rebel United Somali Congress (USC), as Mohamed Farrah Aidid, disagreed with, and did not recognize, Mahdi's declaration to be President. Despite the USC being dominated by the Hawiye clan, the disagreement sitll had clan-based roots- Mahdi was a member of the Habar Gedir sub-clan of the Hawiye, while Aidid was part of the Abgal sub-clan of the Hawiye. From the overthrow of Siad Barre to mid-November of 1991, the USC would attempt, in vain, to solve the political crisis- intermittent fighting began between the Mahdi-aligned faction and the Aidid-aligned faction.

Intensified armed combat began when Aidid's militia attacked the forces of Mahdi in Mogadishu on 17 November. Quickly, Aidid was reported to be in control of the radio station, where his forces were said to have broadcast an announcement of Mahdi's overthrow. Heavy fighting took place between the KM4 junction and the Makka al-Mukarama hotel. The Italian embassy was alleged to have been broken into by Aidid's forces, its staff taken to a safe area under Aidid's control. Mahdi, however, claimed that he had not been ousted. The frontline reportedly moved to around the Villa Somalia. Aidid's forces were generally reported to assault Mahdi's forces with shellings and the like during the day, while Mahdi's forces ambushed Aidid's during the night. The fighting deteriorated into a deadly stalemate, as Aidid's forces were able to push Mahdi's forces into northern Mogadishu after about 2 days of fighting, but could not dislodge them from their northern stronghold. The capital was divided between the northern Mahdi-held areas and the southern Aidid-held areas.

After prior attempts at mediation, first by the Organisation of African Unity's (OAU) Secretary General Salim Ahmed Salim in December, and then by Eritrea (prior to its 1993 referendum), a UN official announced in February that both parties would meet in New York to seek a truce. Ali Mahdi went to the meeting in person, while Aidid sent three representatives. A ceasefire was confirmed on 15 February, 1992, and large humanitarian shipments would begin to relieve the population of Mogadishu. However, such humanitarian relief was often halted by renewed shelling of the port by Aidid's forces, hours after the ceasefire was agreed to. Fighting would continue despite the ceasefire, although at a lower rate then before. It was believed at the time that Aidid's factions were attempting to surround Mahdi's forces in Karan District, while Aidid's forces also seized some strategic hills during the slowing fighting.

By 27 February, both USC factions said they would stop fighting and shelling to allow the movement of a United Nations team. After another ceasefire violation that each faction blamed the other for instigating, both sides agreed on 4 March to a U.N-sponsored ceasefire, although disagreements on how it would be implemented persisted. Discussions on the implementation of the ceasefire began during the first period of negotiations that combined the efforts of the UN, the OAU, the Arab League, and the Organization of the Islamic Conference- it was described by the Christian Science Monitor as "a shift away from a past 'hands-off' policy toward internal conflicts of sovereign states". Despite the continued peace efforts and the ceasefire agreement, however, clashes and shelling continued in the city, and UN officials warned that they may be forced to pull out. Proposals for outside intervention in Somalia to stop the fighting began at this time- the United Nations Security Council would adopt a resolution to establish a team of experts that'd travel to Somalia and examine whether an intervention force to stop fighting could be established. The mission to Somalia began to establish talks between the two factions on 23 March.

An agreement was reached to establish a joint control of the area around the airport and seaport to stop fighting there in late March. The violence gradually shifted from being a product of the inter-clan fighting to being a product of armed gangs taking part in looting. As inter-USC disputes began to be settled, conflict between the SNF and both factions of the USC would escalate once again, with an SNF offensive reaching Mogadishu by April. The offensive would immediately fail, and a successful USC counteroffensive forced the SNF back to the border with Kenya- the success of the offensive caused Siad Barre to flee from Gedo to Kenya in exile by 29 April. However, the SNF launched a counterattack in September which was slightly more successful in that they held their territory, although they did not reach Mogadishu.

Intervention in the crisis was already occurring throughout the conflicts between the SNF and the USC- the United Nations launched the humanitarian operation known as UNOSOM (retrospectively known as UNOSOM I), to deliver humanitarian supplies and monitor a ceasefire that had been agreed upon by Mahdi and Aidid of the USC in April of 1992. The Pakistani soldiers sent to monitor the ceasefire were unable to do so, as they were constantly threatened by the warring parties in the city. In light of the inefficiency of UNOSOM I, United Nations Security Council Resolution 775 was approved of unanimously by the Security Council, and the U.S-led Unified Task Force (UNITAF) landed in, and secured, Mogadishu in December of 1992.

Mogadishu, 1991-1992
Human Rights Watch estimated that, in the period of major fighting from November to February, 14,000 were killed and 27,000 were wounded. Indiscriminate shelling against both enemy and civilian targets in the city contributed to the high death toll and general distruction in Mogadishu. The reported lack of medical facilities in Ali Mahdi's territory further complicated the situation. There were constantly reported extrajudicial executions of prisoners, and attacks on medical personnel were common. The fighting was said to have perpetuated a severe refugee crisis that left up to half of the cities pre-war population of 1.2 million fleeing. Most aid agencies operated in areas under control of Aidid, and as such could not reach wounded on Mahdi's side. To alleviate the humanitarian situation, the Red Cross planned to send 2 emergency surgical teams to Mogadishu, one to Mahdi-held areas (in the north) and one to Aidid-held areas (in the south). Artillery shelling prevented a Red Cross ship from unloading humanitarian supplies to the wartorn city in December. The "Burbur" (meaning "catastrophe"), as some Somalis called the battle, also resulted in increased international awareness of the crisis in Somalia.