Workers League - Behind the US invasion of Somalia - Mehring Books

of Libya and Eritrea, for an unlimited period in the case of Italian
Somaliland. Britain supported the American proposal for Libya, but
reserved comment on Eritrea and Italian Somaliland, hoping that if
Eritrea were eventually handed over to Ethiopia, the latter might be
persuaded to agree to Britain keeping the Ogaden, which was still
occupied by British troops. Ethiopia was at this time seeking control
of both Eritrea and the Ogaden, while Egypt proposed to take over
Eritrea.
Egypt had earlier opened a campaign for the Unity of the Valley
of the Nile, which would unite Ethiopia, Eritrea, French, British and
Italian Somalilands, Kenya and Uganda under Egyptian control. In
order to impose this plan, however, Egypt would have needed the
support of one or more of the imperialist powers. Such support was
not forthcoming, so the plan was dropped, although it was to be
resurrected after Nasser came to power in 1952. 15
None of these powers had the slightest concern for the wishes of
the Somali people, who opposed the restoration of rule by Italy,
Britain or Ethiopia. In 1948, when the formality of consultation was
carried out and a Four Power Commission visited Mogadishu,
violent clashes broke out in which more than 60 people died. The
commission, however, recommended the restoration of Italian rule
in Italian Somaliland, with three of the four commissioners (British,
American and Soviet) urging that Italy be named the administering
authority of a UN trusteeship regime, while France remained in favor
of restoring outright colonial rule. In 1949, when news reached
Mogadishu that the UN General Assembly was discussing the possibility
of the return of Italian rule, riots broke out again and popular
demonstrations were held in Mogadishu and elsewhere in the territory.
The bourgeois nationalist Somali Youth League, which had been
founded in 1943, led the opposition to Italian rule. The SYL called
for national unity, over and above clan divisions, invoking the early
Somali states of the fifteenth century and drawing inspiration from
the ideas of Muhammad bin Abdullah Hassan, who had led the
rebellion against foreign rule at the beginning of the century.
The program of the SYL was the unification of the five Somali
segments in the Italian colony, British Somaliland, French Djibouti,
the Ogaden in Ethiopia, and the British-held Northern Frontier
District in neighboring Kenya. The SYL campaigned for a unification
of the Somali territories under UN mandate with four-power
administration. Abdullahi Issa, the representative of the league,
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