The flag of Somalia, blue with a five-pointed star, represents the nationalist aspiration to unite five Somali regions under a single state: former Italian Somalia, former British Somalia (united in the 1960 in the Somali Republic), French Somalia, Ogaden in Ethiopia and the north-eastern district of Kenya.
Geographically located in the far east of Africa, in the Horn of Africa, Somalia is inhabited by the ethnically and culturally homogeneous Somali people belonging to the Cushitic group, mostly Muslim with a Christian minority; the prevalence of pastoral nomadism among the population makes integration into a centralised state complex.
Somali society is divided into two major national groups: the Samale and the Sab, organised into clans and patriarchal families.
The language is part of the Cushitic stock and has several dialectal variants. Other languages such as Arabic, English and Italian are used in trade and international relations. The Somali Republic was founded on 1 July 1960 from the union of Somaliland and Italian Somalia.
Historically a crucial trading hub between Africa and Asia, Somalia, Islamised in the 7th century, has experienced several dominations, including that of the Christian kingdom of Scioa in 1415, the formation of the kingdom of Adel, the Ottoman advance, and the arrival of the Portuguese in the 15th century, whose influence declined, however, in the 1700.
In 19th century, particularly after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, Somalia became an object of European colonial interest, with Britain, France and Italy establishing colonies in the region; in 1839 Britain took control of the Gulf of Aden and in 1887 established the protectorate of British Somaliland.
Italy and Somalia
Our country's first contacts with that distant land date back to the 1889 when the Sultan of Zanzibar sold his rights to the southern coastal part of Somalia to the Italians. In 1891 our country agreed with England on the division of their respective zones of influence in East Africa, marking the southern limit of the Italian zone at the Juba River.
Somalia became an Italian colony in 1904, when the Italian government decided to take direct responsibility for the Benadir colony (which received the name Somalia) until then in the hands of a private Italian trading company that controlled the customs of five ports on the Somali coast.
Meanwhile, the Italian colony in Benadir, located roughly between the Uebi Shebeli and Juba rivers, was beginning to gain a fair amount of substance and around 1912 extended as far as the settlements of Dabo and Mohaddei.
It must also be said that in the 1908 an agreement had been signed with Ethiopia concerning the northern borders. After the events of World War I, Italy reorganised the administration of the African territory, resumed full-scale economic development of the colony and founded the Giohar and Genale districts.
The Italian presence, however, was not without resistance. As early as the end of the 19th century, a Somali leader of great influence named Mohammed Abdallah Ibu Hassan, better known by the nickname Mad Mullah ('mad mullah'), proclaimed a Holy War in Burao against all invaders. He had many followers, the famous 'dervishes'. rebellion movement.
He conducts a bloody guerrilla war by holding the different armies present in the area (French, British, Ethiopian and Italian) in check. It was the Bima revolt (named after the main Somali tribe involved) that was harshly repressed, using troops composed of ascari. After alternating fortunes, the internal turmoil came to an end in 1920 with his death.
Italy extended its control inland under the 1915 Treaty of London and other agreements that followed the First World War. In 1930s relations with neighbouring Ethiopia increasingly deteriorated until the war against the Negus that led, in 1936, the annexation of the country to Italian East Africa.
In 1940 the territories were involved in the events of World War II during which many Somalis generously fought and heroically died for Italy. After the war was lost. the former colonies were occupied by the British who administered them from 1941 to 1947. In 1919, the UN decided to grant Italy a ten-year trusteeship over Somalia to promote its independence.
When the new fascist governor, Cesare De Vecchi, arrives in Somalia in 1923 Only the southern third of this colony is directly controlled by Rome, while the northern sultanates are subject to a protectorate without any real authority. In the years 1925-27 the governor conducted a series of costly campaigns to reduce the North to obedience. Mussolini himself recognised the authoritarian methods accompanied by cruel and gratuitous massacres.
In 1929, Following the example of Libya, it is decided that where land was not actively cultivated, the government has the right to assign it to Italian settlers. The few indigenous Eritrean and Somali landowners are expropriated and rewarded as small sums of money. In reality, a significant percentage of the most easily and profitably cultivated land is seized.
Thanks to the establishment in 1935 of the banana monopoly, under which only Somalian bananas can be sold in Italy, plantations are developed, where forced labour is brought in.
World War II and the post-war period: the Italian Trusteeship of Somalia is established
When the Second World War broke out, Somalia was occupied by British troops who, having crossed the border from beyond Juba, the 27 February 1941 entered the capital Mogadishu, taking over its administration and forming the separate territory of Ogaden, which was eventually incorporated into British Somalia.
With the Paris Peace Treaty of 1947, Italy was forced to renounce its possessions in Africa and responsibility for the organisation of the former colonies was assigned to the so-called 'big four' (United States, Great Britain, France and the Soviet Union).
In 1948, Having failed to reach a satisfactory agreement, the 'big four' brought the matter back to the UN General Assembly, which in November 1949 approved a plan that, on the basis of the results of a referendum among Somalis, assigned its former colony to Italy in trusteeship, A.F.I.S. (Amministrazione Fiduciaria Italiana della Somalia), for a period of ten years (1950-1960).
The mandate ended prematurely on 1 July 1960, date on which the country gained independence.
First elections and independence
In 1954 the first local elections, with male-only suffrage, were held in 37 municipalities. The 1 July 1960 the 'Italian' Somalia gained independence by uniting with the former British Somalia and taking the name of the United Democratic Somali Republic. As such, it became part of the United Nations on September 1960. In June 1967 Abdar Rasir Ali Shemarke, former head of the Independence Government, was elected President of the Republic by an absolute majority.
In October of the same year, the African country settled its diplomatic relations with Kenya and Ethiopia, while leaving many pending territorial issues unresolved.
In 1969 president was killed in a military coup and a new government was formed headed by the General Mohammed Siad Barre.
In 1970 Barre declared Somalia a socialist state and nationalised most of the country's economic activities in the years following his inauguration. At that time the drought, which lasted throughout the 1974 and the 1975, caused famine to spread throughout Somalia.
In the middle of the 1977 the Somali ethnic group from the Ethiopian region of Ogaden began to fight for their self-determination; supported by Somalia, which also sent its own troops to reinforce them, at the end of the 1977 had taken over a large part of the territory.
Ethiopia, supported by Cuba and the USSR, succeeded in re-establishing control over the region at the beginning of the 1978, inflicting heavy losses on the Somali army; it also provided support to dissident movements in Somalia, mainly based in the north of the country.
Following the clashes in theOgaden some two million refugees sought refuge in Somalia. The United States provided humanitarian and military aid to both contenders in exchange for the use of the naval base at Berbera, previously used by the Soviets. Hostilities with Ethiopia continued until the peace treaty signed in 1988.
In the course of the 1980s However, the Somali Nationalist Movement continued its military campaign against Barre's government, conquering parts of the north of the country. At the end of 1980s Other opposition movements emerged, supported by the different ethnic groups.
In 1991 Siad Barre, after years of anti-government guerrilla warfare, was overthrown by the various movements that opposed him, but the understanding between the factions that had brought down the dictatorship did not last long and the country sank into the anarchy of civil war. Three years of bloody clashes practically razed Mogadishu to the ground and caused severe damage throughout the country.
The death of hundreds of thousands of people is the price of a madness that forces the U.N. to promote the largest humanitarian operation in history.
Goodbye Mogadishu
As mentioned, politically total chaos reigned. The country was a time bomb ready to explode.
For our compatriots, not even the diplomatic seat of the Embassy in Mogadishu could be considered safe.
There were numerous missions by the 46th Airborne Brigade, which, on several occasions, and under the safety framework of the incursors of the 9TH Col Moschin, evacuated around 300 people from the country.
Eventually, under the pressure of events, even the Embassy, which had been protected until then by a few, but courageous, Tuscania paratroopers, had to be abandoned.
On 12 January 1991, the last C-130 hastily filled with compatriots, some standing, some sitting, but all, finally, safe, leaves Mogadishu.
It is goodbye. See you in two years.
1992, the world wakes up, operation UNOSOM is triggered
With the resolution No 733 of January 1992 The Security Council calls on all member states to establish an embargo on the entry of arms and war material into Somalia.
The traffic of death finally slowed down, but the measure alone was not enough to stop the fighting.
In March, another resolution, the n. 746 urges the UN Secretary General to submit a detailed report on the situation as soon as possible, recommending, in the meantime, an increase in humanitarian aid to the Somali people. The old and the children, who represent the most vulnerable section of the population, are being mown down by the violence of a war that shows no sign of abating.
In April 1992, with the resolution n. 751, the United Nations Security Council authorises the operation UNOSOM I (United Nations Operation in Somalia) defining its contours with the n. 767 the following July. There is talk on television and in newspapers around the world of tens of thousands of deaths from starvation and disease.
It is time to do something concrete to stop the massacres and, in theAugust 1992, with the resolution n. 775, the mandate is broadened and the forces increased. In particular, their task consists of:
- Monitoring the ceasefire in Mogadishu
- Ensuring the protection and safety of personnel, equipment and supplies
- Escorting humanitarian convoys forces to be deployed
- 50 military observers
- 3500 security personnel
- 719 men in logistical support
- 200 civilian staff members participating nations
The forces are provided by no less than 16 different contributing nations:
Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, Fiji, Finland, Indonesia, Jordan, Morocco, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan and Zimbabwe
On 3 December, with the resolution n. 794, the Security Council authorises military action throughout Somalia, entrusting it to a group of member states.
Given the gravity of the situation, the Unified Task Force (UNITAF), organised and commanded by the United States, is authorised to use all 'necessary means' to establish security conditions for humanitarian assistance operations in Somalia. UNOSOM remains responsible for overseeing the political aspects of the mission and for coordinating humanitarian assistance. The designation for the Italian contingent will be IBIS operation.
