history of Somalia

Early activity on the coasts

Because of their connection with the Ethiopian hinterland, their proximity to Arabia, and their export of precious gums, ostrich feathers, ghee (clarified butter), and other animal products as well as enslaved people from farther inland, the northern and eastern Somali coasts have for centuries been open to the outside world. This area probably formed part of Punt, “the land of aromatics and incense,” mentioned in ancient Egyptian writings. Between the 7th and the 10th century, immigrant Muslim Arabs and Persians developed trading posts along the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean coasts. Many of the early Arab geographers mentioned these trading posts and the sultanates that grew out of them, but they rarely described the interior of the country in detail.

More From Britannica

Somalia: History

Intensive exploration really began only after the occupation of Aden by the British in 1839 and the ensuing scramble for Somali possessions by Britain, France, and Italy. In 1854, while Richard Burton was exploring the country to the northwest in the course of his famous journey from Berbera to Hārer, his colleague John Hanning Speke was making his way along the Makhir coast in the northeast. This region had previously been visited by Charles Guillain, captain of the brig Ducouedid, between 1846 and 1848. Guillain also sailed down the Indian Ocean coast and went ashore at Mogadishu, Marca, and Baraawe, penetrating some distance inland and collecting valuable geographic and ethnographic information. In 1865 the German explorer Karl Klaus von der Decken sailed up the Jubba River as far as Baardheere in the small steamship Welf, which foundered in rapids above the town. Decken was killed by Somalis, but much valuable information collected by his expedition survived.

Penetration of the interior

In 1883 a party of Englishmen (F.L. and W.D. James, G.P.V. Aylmer, and E. Lort-Phillips) penetrated from Berbera as far as the Shabeelle River, and between 1886 and 1892 H.G.C. and E.J.E. Swayne surveyed the country between the coast and the Shabeelle and also reached farther east toward the Nugaaleed valley. During 1894–95 A. Donaldson-Smith explored the headwaters of the Shabeelle in Ethiopia, reached Lake Rudolf, and eventually descended the Tana River to the Kenyan coast. In 1891 the Italian Luigi Robecchi-Bricchetti trekked from Mogadishu to Hobyo and then crossed the Ogaden region to Berbera. About the same time, further explorations were made by another Italian, Capt. Vittorio Bottego. In the 20th century several extensive surveys were made, especially in the British protectorate, by J.A. Hunt between 1944 and 1950, and much of the country was mapped by aerial survey.

Peoples of the coasts and hinterland

Until recent times the history of the Horn of Africa was dominated by two great themes: the southward expansion of the Somali from the Gulf of Aden littoral and the development by Arab and Persian Muslim settlers of a ring of coastal trading towns dating from at least the 10th century ce. By this time, Islam was firmly established in the northern ports of Seylac (Zeila) and Berbera and at Marca, Baraawe, and Mogadishu on the Indian Ocean coast in the south. These centres were engaged in a lively trade, with connections as far as China. Initially the trend of expansion was from these coastal centres inland, especially in the north.

Probably by the 10th century the country from the Gulf of Aden coast inland had been occupied first by Somali nomads and then, to their south and west, by various groups of pastoral Oromo who apparently had expanded from their traditional homelands in southwestern Ethiopia. To the south of these Cushitic-speaking Somali and Oromo—the “Berberi” of classical times and of the Arab geographers—the fertile lands between the Shabeelle and Jubba rivers were occupied, partly at least, by sedentary Bantu tribes of the Nyika confederacy, whose ancient capital was Shungwaya. Remnants of the Zanj, as these people were known to the Arab geographers, still survive in this region, but their strongest contemporary representatives are found among the coastal Bantu, of whom the Pokomo live along the Tana River in northern Kenya. Another smaller allied population consisted of the ancestors of the scattered bands of hunters of northern Kenya and southern Somalia known as the Wa-Ribi, or the Wa-Boni, a people whose appearance and mode of existence recall those of the San of other areas of Africa.

Are you a student?

Get a special academic rate on Britannica Premium.

Subscribe

The great Somali migrations

With this distribution of peoples in the 10th century, the stage was set for the great movements of expansion of the Somali toward the south and of the Oromo to the south and west. The first known major impetus to Somali migration was that of Sheikh Ismāʿīl Jabartī, ancestor of the Daarood Somali, who apparently traveled from Arabia to settle in the northeastern corner of the Somali peninsula in the 11th century. This was followed, perhaps two centuries later, by the settlement of Sheikh Isaq, founder of the Isaaq Somali. As the Daarood and Isaaq clans grew in numbers and territory in the northeast, they began to vie with their Oromo neighbours, thus creating a general thrust toward the southwest. By the 16th century the movements that followed seem to have established much of the present distribution of Somali clans in northern Somalia. Other Somali pressed farther south, and some, according to the Arab geographer Ibn Saʿīd, had already reached the region of Marca by as early as the 13th century.

In the meantime, farther to the west a ring of militant Muslim sultanates had grown up around the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia, and the two sides were engaged in a protracted struggle for supremacy. Somali clansmen regularly formed part of the Muslim armies: the name Somali first occurs in an Ethiopian song of victory early in the 15th century. In the 16th century the Muslim state of Adal, whose port was Seylac, assumed the lead in the holy wars against the Christian Amhara. The turning point in the struggle between Christians and Muslims was reached with the Ethiopian victory in 1542, with Portuguese support, over the remarkable Muslim leader Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ghāzī (known to the Ethiopians as Aḥmad Grāñ). With his Somali armies, Aḥmad had harried Ethiopia almost to the point of collapse. This victory, which saved Ethiopia, also closed the door to Somali expansion westward and increased the pressure of the Somali and Oromo thrust southward. With this stimulus the main mass of the Oromo swept into Ethiopia from the south and southwest and streamed in conquering hordes as far north as the ancient city of Hārer.

This massive invasion left something of a political vacuum in the south of the Horn, which new Somali settlers were quick to fill. By the 17th century the influx of new migrants, competing and jostling with one another, had become considerable. The old Ajuran Somali sultanate, linked with the port of Mogadishu, was overthrown, and Mogadishu itself was invaded and split into two rival quarters. Some of the earlier Somali groups found refuge in northern Kenya. The continuing Somali thrust south—largely at the expense of Oromo and Zanj predecessors—was ultimately effectively halted at the Tana River only by the establishment of administrative posts in about 1912.

Somali clans and foreign traders

Thus, by the latter part of the 19th century, the coastal and hinterland traditions had merged, and the centre of pressure had swung from the coast to the interior. In the north the ancient ports of Berbera and Seylac, much reduced in prosperity and importance, were now controlled by Somali nomads, and the position of the old ports of Marca, Baraawe, and Mogadishu was very similar. These towns had all been penetrated by various Somali clans, and the dominant political influence became that exercised by the Geledi clan ruling the lower reaches of the Shabeelle. Commercial and political links that provided an opening for European infiltration had, however, also been forged between these two coasts and the outside world. Part of the northern Somali coast, including Seylac, was then nominally under Turkish suzerainty (the Turkish claim going back to the 16th century, when Turkish forces had aided Aḥmad Grāñ in his campaigns against Ethiopia). The southern coastal towns, on the other hand, acknowledged the overlordship of the sultan of Zanzibar, although the latter’s authority was slight in comparison with that exercised locally by the Geledi Somali.

Competition between the European powers and Ethiopia

About the middle of the 19th century, the Somali peninsula became a theatre of competition between Great Britain, Italy, and France. On the African continent itself Egypt also was involved, and later Ethiopia, expanding and consolidating its realm under the guiding leadership of the emperors Tewodros II, Yohannes IV, and Menilek II. Britain’s interest in the northern Somali coast followed the establishment in 1839 of the British coaling station at Aden on the short route to India. The Aden garrison relied upon the importation of meat from the adjacent Somali coast. France sought its own coaling station and obtained Obock on the Afar coast in 1862, later thrusting eastward and developing the Somali port of Djibouti. Farther north, Italy opened a station in 1869 at Aseb, which, with later acquisitions, became the colony of Eritrea. Stimulated by these European maneuvers, Egypt revived Turkey’s ancient claims to the Red Sea coast. In 1870 the Egyptian flag was raised at Bullaxaar (Bulhar) and at Berbera.

Britain at first protested these Egyptian moves but by 1877 had come to regard the Egyptian occupation as a convenient bulwark against the encroachments of European rivals. With the disorganization caused by the revolt in the Sudan during this period, however, Egypt was obliged to curtail its colonial responsibilities, evacuating Hārer and its Somali possessions in 1885. In these circumstances the British government reluctantly decided to fill the gap left by Egypt. Between 1884 and 1886, accordingly, treaties of protection were drawn up with the main northern Somali clans guaranteeing them their “independence.” Somali territory was not fully ceded to Britain, but a British protectorate was proclaimed and vice-consuls appointed to maintain order and control trade at Seylac, Berbera, and Bullaxaar. The interior of the country was left undisturbed, only the coast being affected.

Meanwhile, France had been assiduously extending its colony from Obock, and a clash with Britain was only narrowly averted when an Anglo-French agreement on the boundaries of the two powers’ Somali possessions was signed in 1888. In the same period, the Italians were also actively extending their Eritrean colony and encroaching upon Ethiopian territory. Not to be outdone, the king of Shewa (and soon to be emperor of Ethiopia), Menilek II, took the opportunity of seizing the Muslim city of Hārer, left independent after the Egyptian withdrawal. In 1889 Ethiopia and Italy concluded the Treaty of Wichale, which in the Italian view established an Italian protectorate over Ethiopia. Arms and capital were poured into the country, and Menilek was able to apply these new resources to bring pressure to bear on the Somali clans around Hārer. In 1889 Italy also acquired two protectorates in the northeastern corner of Somalia, and by the end of the year the southern part of the Somali coast leased by the British East Africa Company from the sultan of Zanzibar was sublet to an Italian company.

Italy had thus acquired a Somali colony. From 1892 the lease was held directly from Zanzibar for an annual rent of 160,000 rupees, and, after the failure of two Italian companies by 1905, the Italian government assumed direct responsibility for its colony of Italian Somaliland. To the south of the Jubba River the British East Africa Company held Jubaland until 1895, when this became part of Britain’s East Africa protectorate. Britain and Italy had reached agreement in 1884 on the extent of their respective Somali territories, but the Battle of Adwa (1896), at which the infiltrating Italian armies were crushed by Ethiopian forces, radically changed the position. Ethiopia, then independent of Italy, was plainly master of the hinterland, and in 1896–97 Italy, France, and Britain all signed treaties with Emperor Menilek, curtailing their Somali possessions. Italy gave up the Somali Ogaden, and Britain excised much of the western Hawd from its protectorate. Although the land and the Somali clans (who were not consulted), so abandoned, were not recognized as belonging to Ethiopia, there was nothing then to stop their gradual acquisition by Ethiopia.

Revolt in British Somaliland

These arrangements had scarcely been completed when the British Somaliland protectorate administration found its modest rule threatened by a religious rebellion led by Maxamed Cabdulle Xasan. This Somali sheikh (known to the British as the Mad Mullah) of the Ogaadeen clan, living with his mother’s people in the east of the protectorate, was an adherent of the Ṣaliḥiyyah religious order, whose reformist message he preached with messianic zeal. He quickly achieved wide recognition for his learning, piety, and skill as a mediator and initially cooperated with the authorities. In 1899, however, Sheikh Maxamed came into conflict with the recently established Christian mission and also was involved in a petty dispute with the administration. With the current European and Ethiopian encroachment and with the example of the Sudanese mahdi (in Islamic eschatology, a messianic deliverer), these two incidents provided the seeds that rapidly developed into a major Somali insurrection.

Maxamed did not appropriate the title of mahdi but assumed the title of sayyid (a descendant of the Prophet), and his followers were known as the dervishes. He displayed great skill in employing all the traditional tactics of Somali clan politics in building up his following, strengthening these with the call to national Muslim solidarity against the infidel colonizers. Arms and ammunition, denied to Somali in the past, became easily available through the ports of Djibouti and the northeastern coast, and the dervishes, although opposed by many Somali, who were branded as traitors to Islam, successfully weathered four major British, Italian, and Ethiopian campaigns between 1900 and 1904. The cumbersome British armies, hampered by their supply and water requirements, found the dervish guerrilla tactics hard to combat effectively, and, when in 1910 the British government decided to abandon its inconclusive, extremely expensive operations and withdrew to the coast, leaving chaos in the interior, Sayyid Maxamed seemed to have emerged victorious. A new policy was subsequently adopted, however, and, with the aid of an increasingly effective camel constabulary (whose founder, Richard Corfield, was killed at the Battle of Dulmadoobe in 1913), the dervishes were kept at bay until 1920, when a combined air, sea, and land operation finally routed them. The formidable dervish stronghold at Taleex, or Taleh, was bombed, but the sayyid escaped, as so often before, only to die of influenza a few months later while desperately seeking to rally his scattered followers.

Italian Somaliland

After 1920, administrative control (under the colonial office since 1905) was gradually restored in the protectorate. In Italian Somaliland, where the Italians had been gradually extending their hold on the country, the sayyid’s rebellion had caused less disruption, and the appointment in 1923 of the first fascist governor marked a new active phase in the life of the colony. Two years later Britain ceded Jubaland with the port of Kismaayo, and in 1926, after a bitter military campaign, the two northern Italian protectorates were firmly incorporated. Italian settlement was encouraged, and fruit plantations were developed along the Shabeelle and Jubba valleys. Although agreements of 1897 and 1908 had defined the border with Ethiopia, this had not been demarcated, except for a stretch of about 18 miles (29 km) delimited in 1910, and remained in dispute, thus facilitating the gradual Italian infiltration into Ethiopia. In late 1934 the celebrated Welwel incident, in which an Ethiopian patrol clashed with an Italian garrison, occurred at the Welwel oasis in the eastern part of the Ogaden claimed by both Italy and Ethiopia. The Italian conquest of Ethiopia that followed in 1935–36 brought the Ethiopian and Italian Somali territories together within the framework of Italy’s short-lived East African empire. Italian Somaliland became the province of Somalia.

Independence and union

During World War II the British protectorate was evacuated (1940) but was recaptured with Italian Somalia in 1941, when Ethiopia also was liberated. With the exception of French Somaliland, all the Somali territories were then united under British military administration. In 1948 the protectorate reverted to the Colonial Office; the Ogaden and the Hawd were gradually surrendered to Ethiopia; and in 1950 the Italians returned to southern Somalia with 10 years to prepare the country for independence under a United Nations trusteeship.

Taking advantage of the modest progress that the British military administration had effected, the Italians rapidly pursued social and political advancement, although economic development proved much more difficult. The British protectorate, in the event, became independent on June 26, 1960. On July 1, Italian Somalia followed suit, and the two territories joined as the Somali Republic.

The politics of the new republic were conditioned by clan allegiances, but the first major problems arose from the last-minute marriage between the former Italian trust territory and the former British protectorate. Urgent improvements in communication between the two areas were necessary, as were readjustments in their legal and judicial systems. The first independent government was formed by a coalition of the southern-based Somali Youth League (SYL) and the northern-based Somali National League (SNL).

Pan-Somalism

While modest developments were pursued internally with the help of mainly Western aid, foreign policy was dominated by the Somali unification issue and by the campaign for self-determination of adjoining Somali communities in the Ogaden, French Somaliland, and northern Kenya. The Somalian government strongly supported the Kenyan Somali community’s aim of self-determination (and union with Somalia); when this failed in the spring of 1963, after a commission of inquiry endorsed Somali aspirations, Somalia broke off diplomatic relations with Britain, and a Somali guerrilla war broke out in northern Kenya, paralyzing the region until 1967. By the end of 1963 a Somali uprising in the Ogaden had led to a brief confrontation between Ethiopian and Somalian forces. Since the United States and the West provided military support to Ethiopia and Kenya, Somalia turned to the Soviet Union for military aid. Nevertheless, the republic maintained a generally neutral but pro-Western stance, and, indeed, a new government formed in June 1967 under the premiership of Maxamed Xaaji Ibrahiim Cigaal (Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal) embarked on a policy of détente with Kenya and Ethiopia, muting the Pan-Somali campaign.

The era of “Scientific Socialism” in Somalia

In March 1969 more than 1,000 candidates representing 64 parties (mostly clan-based) contested the 123 seats in the National Assembly. After these chaotic elections, all the deputies (with one exception) joined the SYL, which became increasingly authoritarian. The assassination of Pres. Cabdirashiid Cali Shermaʾarke (Abdirashid Ali Shermarke) on October 15, 1969, provoked a government crisis, of which the military took advantage to stage a coup on October 21.

The overthrow of Cigaal brought to power as head of state and president of a new Supreme Revolutionary Council the commander of the army, Maj. Gen. Mohamed Siad Barre (Maxamed Siyaad Barre). At first the new regime concentrated on consolidating its power internally. Siad quickly adopted “Scientific Socialism,” which, he claimed, was fully compatible with his compatriots’ traditional devotion to Islam. Leading a predominantly military administration, Siad declared a campaign to liberate the country from poverty, disease, and ignorance. The president was soon hailed as the “Father” of the people (their “Mother” was the “Revolution,” as the coup was titled). Relations with socialist countries (especially the Soviet Union and China) were so greatly strengthened at the expense of Western connections that, at the height of Soviet influence, slogans proclaiming a trinity of “Comrade Marx, Comrade Lenin, and Comrade Siad” decorated official Orientation Centres throughout the land. Siad’s authoritarian rule was reinforced by a national network of vigilantes called Victory Pioneers, by a National Security Service headed by his son-in-law, and by National Security Courts notorious for ruthless sentencing. Rural society was integrated into this totalitarian structure through regional committees on which clan elders (now renamed “peace-seekers”) were placed under the authority of a chairman, who was invariably an official of the state apparatus. Clan loyalties were officially outlawed, and clan-inspired behaviour became a criminal offense. Of the government’s many crash programs designed to transform society, the most successful were mass literacy campaigns in 1973 and 1974, which made Somali a written language (in Latin characters) for the first time.

After 1974 Siad turned his attention to external affairs. Somalia joined the Arab League, gaining much-needed petrodollar aid and access to political support from those Persian Gulf states to which Somali labour and livestock were exported at a growing rate. Following Haile Selassie’s overthrow in September 1974, Ethiopia began to fall apart, and guerrilla fighters of the Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF) in the Ogaden pressed Siad (whose mother was an Ogaadeen) for support. When in June 1977 France granted independence to Djibouti (under a Somali president), the WSLF, backed by Somalia, immediately launched a series of fierce attacks on Ethiopian garrisons. By September 1977 Somalia had largely conquered the Ogaden region, and the war was at the gates of Hārer. Then the Soviet Union turned to fill the superpower vacuum left in Ethiopia by the gradual withdrawal of the United States. In the spring of 1978, with the support of Soviet matériel and Cuban soldiers, Ethiopia reconquered the Ogaden, and hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees poured into Somalia.

Somalia’s civil war

Somalia’s defeat in the Ogaden War strained the stability of the Siad regime as the country faced a surge of clan pressures. An abortive military coup in April 1978 paved the way for the formation of two opposition groups: the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF), drawing its main support from the Majeerteen clan of the Mudug region in central Somalia, and the Somali National Movement (SNM), based on the Isaaq clan of the northern regions. Formed in 1982, both organizations undertook guerrilla operations from bases in Ethiopia. These pressures, in addition to pressure from Somalia’s Western backers, encouraged Siad to improve relations with Kenya and Ethiopia. But a peace accord (1988) signed with the Ethiopian leader, Mengistu Haile Mariam, obliging each side to cease supporting Somali antigovernment guerrillas, had the ironic effect of precipitating civil war in Somalia.

Threatened with the closure of their bases in Ethiopia, the SNM attacked government forces in their home region, provoking a bitter conflict that left ghost towns in the hands of government forces. Ogaadeen Somali, who had been progressively absorbed into the army and militia, felt betrayed by the peace agreement with Ethiopia and began to desert, attacking members of Siad’s clan. Siad became preoccupied with daily survival and consolidated his hold on Mogadishu. Clan-based guerrilla opposition groups multiplied rapidly, following the example of the SSDF and SNM. In January 1991 forces of the Hawiye-based United Somali Congress (USC) led a popular uprising that overthrew Siad and drove him to seek asylum among his own clan. Outside Mogadishu, all the main clans with access to the vast stores of military equipment in the country set up their own spheres of influence. Government in the south had largely disintegrated and existed only at the local level in the SSDF-controlled northeast region. In May 1991 the SNM, having secured control of the former British Somaliland northern region, declared that the 1960 federation was null and void and that henceforth the northern region would be independent and known as the Republic of Somaliland.

In Mogadishu the precipitate appointment of a USC interim government triggered a bitter feud between rival Hawiye clan factions. The forces of the two rival warlords, Gen. Maxamed Farax Caydiid (Muhammad Farah Aydid) of the Somali National Alliance (SNA) and Cali Mahdi Maxamed (Ali Mahdi Muhammad) of the Somali Salvation Alliance (SSA), tore the capital apart and battled with Siad’s regrouped clan militia, the Somali National Front, for control of the southern coast and hinterland. This brought war and devastation to the grain-producing region between the rivers, spreading famine throughout southern Somalia. Attempts to distribute relief food were undermined by systematic looting and rake-offs by militias. In December 1992 the United States led an intervention by a multinational force of more than 35,000 troops, which imposed an uneasy peace on the principal warring clans and pushed supplies into the famine-stricken areas. The military operation provided support for a unique effort at peacemaking by the United Nations.

In January and March 1993 representatives of 15 Somali factions signed peace and disarmament treaties in Addis Ababa, but by June the security situation had deteriorated. American and European forces, suffering an unacceptable number of casualties—in the Battle of Mogadishu (October 3–4, 1993), for example, 18 U.S. soldiers and hundreds of Somali militia fighters and civilians were killed—were withdrawn by March 1994. The UN force was reduced to military units mainly from less-developed countries, and the clan-based tensions that had precipitated the civil war remained unresolved. The remaining UN troops were evacuated a year later. Over the next few years there were several failed attempts at peace as fighting persisted between the various clans; the SSA and the SNA continued to be two of the primary warring factions.

In 1998 another portion of the war-torn country—the SSDF-controlled area in the northeast, identified as Puntland—announced its intentions to self-govern. Unlike the self-declared Republic of Somaliland, Puntland did not claim complete independence from Somalia—it instead sought to remain a part of the country as an autonomous region, with the goal of reuniting the country as a federal republic.

Attempts at peace

During the 1990s more than 10 peace conferences were held to address the warfare in Somalia, but they were largely unsuccessful. A 2000 peace conference held in Djibouti, however, sparked international optimism when it yielded a three-year plan for governing Somalia. A Transitional National Assembly, comprising representatives of the many clans, was established and later that year formed a Transitional National Government (TNG). But the TNG’s authority was not widely accepted within the country: the new government faced constant opposition and was never able to rule effectively.

Another series of peace talks began in 2002; those talks, sponsored by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and based in Kenya, eventually produced a new transitional government, known as the Transitional Federal Government (TFG). A transitional parliament was inaugurated in 2004, and in October of that year the parliament elected Abdullah Yusuf Ahmed interim president for a five-year period. Somalia’s new government remained based in Kenya, however, as much of Somalia, especially Mogadishu, was unsafe. Also in 2004 a tsunami struck the Somali coast, killing several hundred people, displacing many thousands more, and destroying the livelihood of Somalia’s fishing communities.

In February 2006 the transitional parliament met in Baydhabo (Baidoa)—the first time it had met on Somali soil since its formation in 2004. Although not the Somali capital, Baydhabo had been selected as the meeting place because it was deemed safer than Mogadishu, where clan-based violence continued to escalate. Matters were further complicated when in June 2006, the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) took control of Mogadishu and southern regions of Somalia after defeating the militias of clan warlords. That same month the ICU revamped its organizational structure and changed its name to the Supreme Islamic Courts Council (SICC). The group challenged the authority of the TFG, and further hostilities ensued. In response, Ethiopia sent troops to Somalia to defend the beleaguered TFG. This action was generally supported by the international community, since the TFG was internationally recognized as the legitimate government of Somalia and there were concerns that the SICC had ties to al-Qaeda, particularly the militant faction known as al-Shabaab; indeed, that group later acknowledged such ties. Peace talks were held in an attempt to reach a compromise between the TFG and the SICC, but tensions remained. In December 2006 Ethiopian and Somali troops engaged in a coordinated air and ground war in defense of the TFG, and they were able to push the SICC out of Mogadishu in January 2007. The SICC largely disintegrated, but al-Shabaab survived and began to mount a campaign of guerrilla attacks that continued for several years. In February 2007 the United Nations Security Council authorized a small African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission (AMISOM) in Somalia, which, unfortunately, was extremely limited in what it was able to do. Unrelenting violence and warfare—as well as drought, flooding, and famine—continued to devastate Somalia. In December 2008 Yusuf, who faced growing criticism for his handling of the peace efforts, resigned as president.

A moderate Islamist, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, was elected president in January 2009. Also that month the transitional parliament extended the TFG’s mandate for another two years; it was again extended in 2011, for one more year. In April 2009 the transitional parliament agreed to adopt sharia (Islamic law) for use throughout the country, a move viewed by many as an attempt to attract some of the support that had been enjoyed by the ICU/SICC.

Incidents of piracy off the Somali coast—a problem for many years—greatly increased in the first decade of the 21st century and aroused international concern. Beginning in 2012, however, there was a significant decline in the number of attacks, attributed in part to the political strides being made in Somalia, an improvement in security practices on ships, and an international naval presence in the region to discourage acts of piracy.

A new government

With the transitional administration’s mandate set to expire on August 20, 2012, and against the backdrop of ongoing violence, Somalis worked toward forming the foundations of a new government. To that end, in August 2012 a provisional constitution was adopted by a constituent assembly, and candidates to fill the seats in the House of the People, the lower house of the country’s new parliament, were chosen by a group of traditional elders and approved by a selection committee. The other house of parliament, the Upper House, was not immediately established. When the lower house was sworn in on August 20, the majority of the seats had been filled, providing more than enough for a quorum so the new parliamentarians could elect the country’s new president, as dictated by the provisional constitution. The election was held on September 10, 2012, and Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, an academic and activist with a moderate stance, was elected president.

As president, Mohamud faced a wide array of challenges. The new government got off to a shaky start as Mohamud clashed with his prime ministers; from December 2013 to December 2014, three people held the position. Improving security conditions and extending the government’s control over more areas of the country remained pressing needs. In support of those aims, the AU’s peacekeeping mission in Somalia, AMISOM, increased the size of its force in 2014. The country still faced attacks by al-Shabaab: although the group had been forced out of Somalia’s major cities, including Mogadishu, by late 2012, it still remained active, with deadly bombings, suicide attacks, and assassinations. The nascent administration was also the target of corruption allegations, which had been a problem with the TFG as well. The ongoing graft issues were of increasing concern to international donors. Also of international—as well as domestic—concern was Mohamud’s announcement in July 2015 that the eagerly anticipated direct elections would not occur as planned in 2016; he cited the security threat posed by al-Shabaab as being a reason why it would not be possible to prepare for and hold such elections in 2016.

Dissatisfaction with Mohamud’s responses to the aforementioned challenges contributed to a motion of impeachment being brought against him by members of the Somali Federal Parliament in August 2015. Many parliament members were also unhappy with what they deemed as Mohamud’s disregard for the constitution in some of his decrees and other actions. The impeachment motion was later dropped in lieu of resolving the discord via dialogue, which had been encouraged by the international community.

As the original goal of holding direct elections in 2016 was not possible, preparations were instead made to hold indirect elections. Arrangements were made to create 275 electoral colleges, each with 51 delegates chosen by the elders from Somalia’s clans, for a total of 14,025 delegates; each electoral college would then vote for 1 of the 275 members of parliament’s lower house, the House of the People. The 54 members of the Upper House would be selected by the state assemblies. The new members of parliament would then elect the new president. The elections for the members of parliament, and in turn the president, faced repeated postponements, underscoring the logistical difficulties of organizing even a limited electoral process in the conflict-ridden country. Most members of parliament were finally elected and sworn in by the end of 2016.

Parliament’s election of Somalia’s new president occurred on February 8, 2017, amid tight security measures. Three rounds of voting were planned. More than 20 candidates stood for the presidency in the first round, with the top vote getters advancing to the next round. After two of the three scheduled rounds of voting had occurred, former prime minister Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed emerged with a commanding lead over Mohamud and one other candidate standing in the second round. Before the third round could take place, Mohamud conceded to Mohamed, and Mohamed was sworn in as Somalia’s new president. The entire electoral process, from the clan elders’ selection of delegates for the electoral colleges all the way through to the parliament members’ vote for president, was clouded by allegations of intimidation, violence, and rampant corruption, with some analysts estimating that about $20 million had been spent on bribes. Even so, the electoral process was considered a step forward for the beleaguered country.

Although the goal had been for the next elections—expected in 2020—to be held with voters being able to directly elect the president and parliament members, the many challenges facing the country, including the still tenuous security situation with al-Shabaab, did not make this possible. On September 17, 2020, the federal and state governments agreed to hold indirect elections again, in a method similar to the one used in 2016 but with some changes, including an increase in the number of people who would be voting in the indirect elections. The same day, President Mohamed appointed a new prime minister, Mohamed Hussein Roble. The agreement provided for an ambitious, if not unrealistic, timetable of having parliamentary elections completed in December 2020 and a new president elected in February 2021. However, two states took issue with how the agreement was to be implemented, launching an impasse that persisted well into 2021 and delayed elections. Meanwhile, the terms of the parliament members had ended in December 2020, and Mohamed’s term ended in February 2021. Against the backdrop of the unresolved election agreement issues and expired terms, in April 2021 the House of the People voted to extend the terms of parliament and the president for two years and, contrary to the September 2020 agreement, called for direct elections to be held within that time frame. The Upper House objected; nonetheless, Mohamed quickly signed the bill into law. The actions were widely criticized both at home and internationally and ignited protests and armed clashes in Mogadishu between security forces and military personnel loyal to the federal government and other security forces and troops that, like many of the protestors, opposed the term extensions. Roble also condemned the term extensions. The backlash led to the president withdrawing his support for the measures, and on May 1 the House of the People rescinded the April legislation, thus restoring the September 2020 agreement and alleviating some of the heightened political pressure. Tensions were further calmed later that month when, on May 27, the signatories to the September 2020 agreement signed another that resolved the lingering disputes regarding the implementation of the first agreement. Even so, election preparations did not proceed smoothly, and there were more disagreements and delays in the coming months, including some high-profile disagreements between the president and prime minister. Elections for Upper House seats began in late July and were completed in November 2021, but the lower house elections, which began in November, dragged on well into 2022. Most parliamentarians were inaugurated on April 14, 2022. Also that month, the AMISOM peacekeeping operation was replaced by the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), a multidimensional mission comprising military, police, and civilian personnel.

With the parliament seats filled, the body met to hold the long-delayed presidential election on May 15, 2022, amid tight security. Thirty-nine candidates had put their names forth for the presidency, with the incumbent, President Mohamed, and former president Mohamud among the front-runners. After two rounds of voting, the two front-runners faced each another once again in the final round, with Mohamud garnering the most votes. Mohamed conceded to Mohamud, who was immediately sworn in as president on May 16. An official handover ceremony between Mohamed and Mohamud took place on May 23, 2022.