Somali Civil War The Somali Civil War is an ongoing civil war taking place in Somalia . It began in 1991 , when a coalition of clan - based armed opposition groups ousted the nation ' s long - standing military government . Various factions began competing for influence in the power vacuum that followed , which precipitated an aborted UN peacekeeping attempt in the mid - 1990s . A period of decentralization ensued , characterized by a return to customary and religious law in many areas as well as the establishment of autonomous regional governments in the northern part of the country . The early 2000s saw the creation of fledgling interim federal administrations , culminating in the establishment of the Transitional Federal Government ( TFG ) in 2004 . In 2006 , the TFG , assisted by Ethiopian troops , assumed control of most of the nation ' s southern conflict zones from the newly formed Islamic Courts Union ( ICU ) . The ICU subsequently splintered into more radical groups , notably Al - Shabaab , which have since been fighting the Somali government and its AMISOM allies for control of the region . In 2011 , a coordinated military operation between the Somali military and multinational forces began , which is believed to represent one of the final stages in the war ' s Islamist insurgency . Fall of Barre regime ( 1986 – 1991 ) . After fallout from the unsuccessful Ogaden campaign of the late 1970s , the ruling socialist government of the Somali Democratic Republic under Major General Mohamed Siad Barre began arresting government and military officials under suspicion of participation in the abortive 1978 coup d ' état . Most of the people who had allegedly helped plot the putsch were summarily executed . However , several officials managed to escape abroad and started to form the first of various dissident groups dedicated to ousting Barre ' s regime by force . In May 1986 , Barre suffered serious injuries in a life - threatening automobile accident near Mogadishu , when the car that was transporting him smashed into the back of a bus during a heavy rainstorm . He was treated in a hospital in Saudi Arabia for head injuries , broken ribs and shock over a period of a month . Lieutenant General Mohamed Ali Samatar , then Vice President , subsequently served as de facto head of state for the next several months . Although Barre managed to recover enough to present himself as the sole presidential candidate for re - election over a term of seven years on December 23 , 1986 , his poor health and advanced age led to speculation about who would succeed him in power . Possible contenders included his son - in - law General Ahmed Suleiman Abdille , who was at the time the Minister of the Interior , in addition to Barre ' s Vice President Lt . Gen . Samatar . By that time , the moral authority of Barre ' s ruling Supreme Revolutionary Council ( SRC ) had collapsed . Many Somalis had become disillusioned with life under military dictatorship . The regime was further weakened in the 1980s as the Cold War drew to a close and Somalia ' s strategic importance was diminished . The government became increasingly totalitarian , and resistance movement s , encouraged by Ethiopia ' s communist Derg administration , sprang up across the country . This eventually led in 1991 to the outbreak of the civil war , the toppling of Barre ' s regime and the disbandment of the Somali National Army ( SNA ) . Among the militia groups that led the rebellion were the Somali Salvation Democratic Front ( SSDF ) , United Somali Congress ( USC ) , Somali National Movement ( SNM ) and the Somali Patriotic Movement ( SPM ) , together with the non - violent political oppositions of the Somali Democratic Movement ( SDM ) , the Somali Democratic Alliance ( SDA ) and the Somali Manifesto Group ( SMG ) . Many of the opposition groups subsequently began competing for influence in the power vacuum that followed the ouster of Barre ' s regime . In the south , armed factions led by USC commanders General Mohamed Farah Aidid and Ali Mahdi Mohamed , in particular , clashed as each sought to exert authority over the capital . United Nations intervention ( 1992 – 1995 ) . UN Security Council Resolution 733 and UN Security Council Resolution 746 led to the creation of UNOSOM I , the first mission to provide humanitarian relief and help restore order in Somalia after the dissolution of its central government . United Nations Security Council Resolution 794 was unanimously passed on December 3 , 1992 , which approved a coalition of United Nations peacekeepers led by the United States . Forming the Unified Task Force ( UNITAF ) , the alliance was tasked with assuring security until humanitarian efforts aimed at stabilizing the situation were transferred to the UN . Landing in 1993 , the UN peacekeeping coalition started the two - year United Nations Operation in Somalia II ( UNOSOM II ) primarily in the south . UNITAF ' s original mandate was to use " all necessary means " to guarantee the delivery of humanitarian aid in accordance to Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter , and is regarded as a success . Some of the militias that were then competing for power interpreted the UN troops ' presence as a threat to their hegemony . Consequently , several gun battles took place in Mogadishu between local gunmen and peacekeepers . Among these was the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993 , an unsuccessful attempt by US troops to apprehend faction leader Aidid . UN soldiers eventually withdrew altogether from the country on March 3 , 1995 , having incurred more significant casualties . Decentralization . Following the outbreak of the civil war and the ensuing collapse of the central government , Somalia ' s residents reverted to local forms of conflict resolution ; either secular , traditional or Islamic law , with a provision for appeal of all sentences . The legal structure in Somalia is thus divided along three lines : civil law , religious law and customary law . While Somalia ' s formal judicial system was largely destroyed after the fall of the Siad Barre regime , it was later gradually rebuilt and administered under different regional governments , such as the autonomous Puntland and Somaliland macro - regions . In the case of the later Transitional Federal Government , a new interim judicial structure was formed through various international conferences . Despite some significant political differences between them , all of these administrations share similar legal structures , much of which are predicated on the judicial systems of previous Somali administrations . These similarities in civil law include : a ) a charter which affirms the primacy of Muslim shari ' a or religious law , although in practice shari ' a is applied mainly to matters such as marriage , divorce , inheritance , and civil issues . The charter guarantees respect for universal standards of human rights to all subjects of the law . It also assures the independence of the judiciary , which in turn is protected by a judicial committee ; b ) a three - tier judicial system including a supreme court , a court of appeal s , and courts of first instance ( either divided between district and regional courts , or a single court per region ) ; and c ) the laws of the civilian government which were in effect prior to the military coup d ' état that saw the Barre regime into power remain in force until the laws are amended . Rise and fall of the ICU , Ethiopian intervention , and the TFG ( 2006 – 2009 ) . The early 2000s saw the creation of fledgling interim federal administrations , with the Transitional National Government ( TNG ) established in 2000 followed by the formation of its successor the Transitional Federal Government ( TFG ) in 2004 . In 2006 , the Islamic Courts Union ( ICU ) , an Islamist organization , assumed control of much of the southern part of the country and promptly imposed shari ' a law . The Transitional Federal Government sought to reestablish its authority . With the assistance of Ethiopian troops , African Union peacekeepers and air support by the United States , the reconstituted Somalian military managed to drive out the rival ICU and solidify the TFG ' s rule . On January 8 , 2007 , as the Battle of Ras Kamboni raged , TFG President and founder Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed , a former colonel in the Somali Army and decorated war hero , entered Mogadishu for the first time since being elected to office . The government then relocated to Villa Somalia in the capital from its interim location in Baidoa . This marked the first time since the fall of the Siad Barre regime in 1991 that the federal government controlled most of the country . Following this defeat , the Islamic Courts Union splintered into several different factions . Some of the more radical elements , including Al - Shabaab , regrouped to continue their insurgency against the TFG and oppose the Ethiopian military ' s presence in Somalia . Throughout 2007 and 2008 , Al - Shabaab scored military victories , seizing control of key towns and ports in both central and southern Somalia . At the end of 2008 , the group had captured Baidoa but not Mogadishu . By January 2009 , Al - Shabaab and other militias had managed to force the Ethiopian troops to retreat , leaving behind an under - equipped African Union peacekeeping force to assist the Transitional Federal Government ' s troops . Due to a lack of funding and human resources , an arms embargo that made it difficult to re - establish a national security force , and general indifference on the part of the international community , President Yusuf found himself obliged to deploy thousands of troops from Puntland to Mogadishu to sustain the battle against insurgent elements in the southern part of the country . Financial support for this effort was provided by the autonomous region ' s government . This left little revenue for Puntland ' s own security forces and civil service employees , leaving the territory vulnerable to piracy and terrorist attacks . On December 29 , 2008 , Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed announced before a united parliament in Baidoa his resignation as President of Somalia . In his speech , which was broadcast on national radio , Yusuf expressed regret at failing to end the country ' s seventeen - year conflict as his government had mandated to do . He also blamed the international community for its failure to support the government , and said that the speaker of parliament would succeed him in office per the Charter of the Transitional Federal Government . Coalition government . Between May 31 and June 9 , 2008 , representatives of Somalia ' s federal government and the moderate Alliance for the Re - liberation of Somalia ( ARS ) group of Islamist rebels participated in peace talks in Djibouti brokered by the former United Nations Special Envoy to Somalia , Ahmedou Ould - Abdallah . The conference ended with a signed agreement calling for the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops in exchange for the cessation of armed confrontation . Parliament was subsequently expanded to 550 seats to accommodate ARS members , which then elected Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed , the former ARS chairman , to office . President Sharif shortly afterwards appointed Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke , the son of slain former President Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke , as the nation ' s new Prime Minister . With the help of a small team of African Union troops , the coalition government also began a counteroffensive in February 2009 to assume full control of the southern half of the country . To solidify its rule , the TFG formed an alliance with the Islamic Courts Union , other members of the Alliance for the Re - liberation of Somalia , and Ahlu Sunna Waljama ' a , a moderate Sufi militia . Furthermore , Al - Shabaab and Hizbul Islam , the two main Islamist groups in opposition , began to fight amongst themselves in mid - 2009 . As a truce , in March 2009 , Somalia ' s coalition government announced that it would re - implement shari ' a as the nation ' s official judicial system . However , conflict continued in the southern and central parts of the country . Within months , the coalition government had gone from holding about 70 % of south - central Somalia ' s conflict zones , territory which it had inherited from the previous Yusuf administration , to losing control of over 80 % of the disputed territory to the Islamist insurgents . War in Somalia ( 2009 – present ) . In November 2010 , a new technocratic government was elected to office , which enacted numerous reforms . Among these , in its first 50 days in office , the new administration completed its first monthly payment of stipends to government soldiers , and initiated the implementation of a full biometric register for the security forces within a window of four months . By August 2011 , the new government and its AMISOM allies had managed to capture all of Mogadishu from the Al - Shabaab militants . An ideological rift within Al - Shabaab ' s leadership also emerged in response to pressure from the recent drought and the assassination of top officials in the organization . In October 2011 , a coordinated operation between the Somali military and the Kenyan military began against the Al - Shabaab group of insurgents in southern Somalia . The mission was officially led by the Somali army , with the Kenyan forces providing a support role . In early June 2012 , Kenyan forces were formally integrated into AMISOM . Analysts expect the additional AU troop reinforcements to help the Somali authorities gradually expand their territorial control .