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Countering the al-Shabaab Insurgency in Somalia: Lessons for U.S. Special Operations Forces

“…This has resulted in differing regional interests 436 with real consequences; just before independence and during the years before the 1969 coup, the Hizbia Digil-Mirifle Somali political party that represented the (Rahaweyn) Digil-Mirifle clans, advocated for federalism "with a large measure of regional autonomy" because they feared that centralized rule "would mean discrimination against them and rule by northerners." 437 In the early 1900s the Shidle and Eile, Bantu agriculturalists upon whom Somali tribes looked down "as inferior and by nature slaves," welcomed the Italian occupation because it "meant additional security and protection for the Bantu against the incursions of the Galjal Somali." 438 And as a final example, after unifying with southern Somalia in 1961, Somalilanders became "second-class citizens" and "junior partner[s] in the state"; "the overwhelming majority" of the brutality inflicted by Siad Barre's regime on the North was perpetrated by "Southerners whom the people of Somaliland came to no longer see as co-nationals, but as an alien occupying force."…”

“…In fact, they bore more resemblance to the voluntary, loose federations of the Swahili coastal city-states, such as Lamu and Malindi, 11 than to what in modern times could properly be called a centralized government. Furthermore, these cities were not strictly Somali undertakings; as noted earlier, Arabs established these towns, and the ruling councils had a strong Arab presence.…”