Currently viewing the tag: "Somalia"

Alex de Waal

Selecting a title for their book, Tobias Hagmann and Finn Stepputat chose ‘Trade makes States.’ It’s an obvious riff on the famous line by Charles Tilly, ‘war made the state, and the state made war,’ which has preoccupied historians, especially of Europe. In much of the world, of course, war […]

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Thirty years ago this week, on July 11, 1993 to be precise, a military attorney attached to the UN Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM) instructed that I should be detained.

The stated reason was that I was ‘supporting the propaganda efforts of the USC’. The United Somali Congress was the military-political organization headed by General Mohamed […]

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The conflict in Ethiopia appears to have entered a new phase as forces loyal to Tigrayan rebels and their allies march towards the capital city, Addis Ababa. International efforts to broker peace between the warring parties and calls for a political solution have not borne fruit yet.

While the situation on the ground is very […]

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By Nisar Majid and Khalif Abdirahman

A Two-Year Presidential Extension in Somalia?

Somalia’s President and Lower House of Parliament have just extended their terms in office by two years, after many months of wrangling. Many – but far from all – of Somalia’s international partners have been vocal in their criticism of this […]

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Thirty years after the overthrow of President Mohamed Siad Barre, Somalia is in a new interregnum. This time, most of the Somali political elite share a consensus on the next step—dialogue.

My paper, ‘Somalia’s disassembled state: clan unit formation and the political marketplace,’ was recently published in the journal, Conflict, Security and Development. […]

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‘Focus on loss of life – and urgently trying to prevent it – rather than whether a famine has been declared.’

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