La bandiera della Somalia, azzurra con una stella a cinque punte, rappresenta l’aspirazione nazionalista a riunire cinque regioni somale sotto un unico Stato: la Somalia ex italiana, la Somalia ex britannica (unite nel 1960 nella Repubblica Somala), la Somalia francese, l’Ogaden in Etiopia e il distretto nord-orientale del Kenia.
Geograficamente posizionata nell’estremo oriente dell’Africa, nel Corno d’Africa, la Somalia è abitata dal popolo somalo, etnicamente e culturalmente omogeneo e appartenente al gruppo cuscitico, in gran parte musulmano con una minoranza cristiana; la prevalenza del nomadismo pastorale tra la popolazione rende complessa l’integrazione in uno Stato centralizzato.
Somali society is divided into two major national groups: the Samale and the Sab, organised into clans and patriarchal families.
La lingua parte del ceppo cuscitico, ha diverse varianti dialettali. Altre lingue come l’arabo, l’inglese e l’italiano sono utilizzate nei commerci e nelle relazioni internazionali. La Repubblica Somala fu fondata il 1 July 1960 dall’unione del Somaliland e della Somalia italiana.
Storicamente un cruciale snodo commerciale tra l’Africa e l’Asia, la Somalia, islamizzata nel VII secolo, ha vissuto diverse dominazioni, inclusa quella del regno cristiano dello Scioa nel 1415, la formazione del regno di Adel, l’avanzata ottomana, e l’arrivo dei Portoghesi nel XV secolo, la cui influenza declinò tuttavia nel 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.
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.
La presenza Italiana comunque non fu senza resistenza, già dalla fine dell’ottocento un capo somalo di grandissimo ascendente di nome Mohammed Abdallah Ibu Hassan. meglio noto con il soprannome di Mad Mullah (“mullah pazzo”), proclamò a Burao la Guerra Santa contro tutti gli invasori. Aveva molti seguaci, i famosi “dervisci” , ma il movimento di ribellione.
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.
L’Italia estese il proprio controllo verso l’interno, nel quadro del trattato di Londra del 1915 e di altri accordi seguiti alla prima guerra mondiale. Negli 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.
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, l’Italia fu costretta a rinunciare ai possedimenti in Africa e la responsabilità per l’assetto delle ex colonie fu assegnata ai cosiddetti “quattro grandi” (Stati Uniti, Gran Bretagna, Francia e Unione Sovietica).
In 1948, non avendo raggiunto un accordo soddisfacente, i “quattro grandi” ricondussero la questione al vaglio dell’Assemblea generale delle Nazioni Unite, che nel novembre 1949 approvò un piano che sulla base delle risultanze di un referendum tra i Somali, assegnava all’Italia la sua ex colonia in amministrazione fiduciaria, A.F.I.S. (Amministrazione Fiduciaria Italiana della Somalia) per un periodo di dieci anni (1950-1960).
The mandate ended prematurely on 1 July 1960, date on which the country gained 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 il gruppo etnico somalo della regione etiope dell’Ogaden iniziò a combattere per la propria autodeterminazione; sostenuto dalla Somalia, che inviò in rinforzo anche le proprie truppe, alla fine del 1977 had taken over a large part of the territory.
L’Etiopia, sostenuta da Cuba e dall’URSS, riuscì a ripristinare il controllo sulla regione all’inizio del 1978, infliggendo gravi perdite all’esercito somalo; fornì inoltre sostegno ai movimenti dissidenti della Somalia, stanziati soprattutto nel Nord del paese.
In seguito agli scontri nell’Ogaden some two million refugees sought refuge in Somalia. The United States fornirono aiuti umanitari e militari a entrambi i contendenti in cambio dell’utilizzo della base navale di Berbera, utilizzata in precedenza dai sovietici. Le ostilità con l’Etiopia continuarono fino al trattato di pace siglato nel 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.
La morte di centinaia di migliaia di persone è il prezzo di una follia che costringe l’ O.N.U a promuovere la più grande operazone umanitaria della storia.
As mentioned, politically total chaos reigned. The country was a time bomb ready to explode.
Per i nostri connazionali neanche la sede diplomatica dell’Ambasciata di Mogadiscio poteva considerarsi sicura.
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.
Alla fine, sotto l’incalzare degli eventi, si dovette abbandonare anche l’Ambasciata protetta fino ad allora da pochi, ma coraggiosi, carabinieri paracadutisti del Tuscania.
Il 12 gennaio 1991, l’ultimo C-130 riempito frettolosamente alla meno peggio di connazionali, chi in piedi, chi seduto, ma tutti, finalmente, al sicuro, lascia Mogadiscio.
E’ un arrivederci. Ci vediamo tra due anni.
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.
Nell’aprile 1992, con la risoluzione n. 751, il Consiglio di Sicurezza delle Nazioni Unite autorizza l’operazione 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.
E’ ora di fare qualcosa di concreto per arrestare i massacri e, nell’August 1992, with the resolution n. 775, the mandate is broadened and the forces increased. In particular, their task consists of:
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, il Consiglio di sicurezza autorizza un’azione militare in tutta la Somalia, affidandola ad un gruppo di Stati Membri.
Given the gravity of the situation, the Unified Task Force (UNITAF), organised and commanded by the United States, è autorizzata ad usare tutti i “mezzi necessari” atti a determinare condizioni di sicurezza per le operazioni di assistenza umanitaria in Somalia. A UNOSOM resta la responsabilità della supervisione circa gli aspetti politici della missione e quella del coordinamento dell’assistenza umanitaria. La denominazione per il contingente italiano sarà IBIS operation.