State of the World's Minorities 2007 - Somalia

According to MRG's People under Threat calculation (Table 1, Reference section, pp. 118–23), Somalia is the most dangerous place in the world for minorities. Throughout 2006, tensions between Ethiopia – the main backer of the weak transitional federal government (TFG) – and an alliance of Islamist parties escalated. The US-backed Ethiopian military offensive broke the grip of the Islamist alliance, but ushered in the prospect of further instability and conflict, in a country which has been without a central government since 1991. Ominously, foreign actors – in the Middle East, and the Horn of Africa region, as well as the US – have become increasingly involved in this round of the fighting. However, the roots of the conflict are to be found in inter-clan rivalries. According to the International Crisis Group, the Union of Islamic Courts became a platform for powerful Hawiye clan, after many sections of this influential grouping felt excluded from the TFG. The TFG's head President Yusuf is from the large Darod clan – as are many in the higher ranks of the TFG. After December's crisis, the president faces faces calls from the international community to form a more inclusive government. As the fighting spread, many Somalis fled. Pastoralist peoples already suffering hardship from the twin disasters of drought and heavy flooding in 2006 – have been especially vulnerable. By October 2006, UN officials estimated that 1000 refugees a day were arriving in North-Western Kenya. In early 2007, the Kenyan government shut its border with Somalia, drawing strong criticism from the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Humanitarian agencies continue to warn that lack of access to refugees is exacerbating an already dire situation.