Gone Forever - Old Somalia

The last democratic elections in Somalia was back in 1969 just before a bloodless coup imposed military rule after the assassination of President Abdirashid Ali Shermarke .....

President Abdirashid Ali Shermarke

Its last vaguely effective national government ended in the early 1990's, and it is now fractured in to many differently controlled regions (and even the breakaway state of Somaliland, which is probably the best governed part of the old Somalia, and the semi-independent Puntland which is run by militias).

One of its principle regional rulers is the terror group Al-Shabab ('The Youth') and which is allied to al-Qaeda. It main aim, is to promote the Saudi-inspired hard line Wahhabi version of Islam, despite most Somalis being the somewhat less militant (remember its all relative) Sufi's.

Areas Of Control In Somalia

In the areas under its control, it has imposed a strict version of Sharia with stoning's, amputations and beheading's, for crimes such as adultery and stealing. It is banned as a terrorist group by both the US and the UK, but its between 7,000 and 9,000 fighters, still operate more or less freely in large parts of Somalia.

So its latest random killing of 20 people in the Hotel Hayat in the capital Mogadishu is pretty much par for the course for a group that claims to represent true Islamic values. The group is a splinter faction from the radical youth wing of Somalia's now-defunct Union of Islamic Courts, which controlled Mogadishu in 2006. Their attacks have also often crossed local borders such as in 2010 when they bombed bars in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, killing 76 people who were watching the world cup final between Holland and Spain.

They were also responsible for the 2015 massacre at Kenya's Garissa University, which targeted and killed 148 Christian students .... it still has considerable control and influence in Southern Somalia although many locals still remember when ejected Western food aid for the people under its control to combat a 2011 drought and famine.

Its hard to see the old Somalia of the late 1960's or even of the military rule of Major General Mohamed Siad Barre which ended in 1991 ever being reconstituted .... breakaway Somaliland would never return to Somali federal control, and even Puntland is only loosely still part of the country. 

Map Of Colonial Somalia

Interestingly the country is largely splitting along old colonial borders (the old French Somalia remained separate as Djibouti after the French rigged the independence vote), with 'British Somalia' as Somaliland, and 'Italian Somalia' as Puntland, and the African Union/Government partially controlled southern Somalia.

So it appears that the country is destined to be torn apart for decades by terrorism and insurgency, a victim initially of the cold war tensions that caused the military coup, and then the subsequent rise of hard line Islamic terrorism which has blighted the Muslim world (and the rest of the world) since the 1990's.