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

Somalia as the regime they opposed. In mid-August 1990, the USC,
the SNM and the SPM coordinated their separate military campaigns
to overthrow the regime and, on January 27,1991, Barre fled, first to
Kenya, than to Nigeria.
The USC took power in Mogadishu and immediately invited all
opposition groups to participate in a national conference. Ali Mahdi
Mohamed, who had been president for a time in the 1960s, was
appointed temporary president. The SNM, which prevailed in the
north of the country, and the SPM, which controlled the south,
opposed his appointment and demanded his resignation. In May, the
SNM formed an administration to govern the former territory of
British Somaliland and seceded from Somalia, declaring a new state,
the Republic of Somaliland. In Mogadishu, Ali Mahdi also faced
opposition within the USC from Gen. Mohamed Farah Aidid, the
movement's military commander, whose forces seized the southern
part of the city.
Inconclusive fighting between the rival clan-based factions has
continued for the past two years, destroying much of what remains of
economic life and agriculture. As a result of this catastrophe, an
unknown number of people have died. In early 1992, some 200,000
people were living in refugee camps around Mogadishu, and it was
estimated that millions were threatened by famine. On March 3,
1992, a cease-fire was signed between Aidid and Ali Mahdi, but by
then mass starvation had gripped much of the southern half of the
country.
The major imperialist powers have seized on the tragedy of
Somalia as an opportunity to initiate the most dramatic change in
policy toward the oppressed countries of Asia and Africa since the
Second World War. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the
imperialists no longer feel the need to pay lip service to democracy
and sovereignty in the former colonial countries. Driven by their own
deepening economic crisis, and the reemergence of the same
interimperialist antagonisms which produced World War I and
World War II, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Japan
and Italy are seeking to revive forms of direct colonial rule and once
again carve up large portions of the globe for their exclusive domination.
The return to colonialism is being carried out under cover of a
propaganda barrage about concern over the fate of starving people in
Somalia. But most of the Somalis in immediate danger of famine were
allowed to starve to death over the last 12 months, while the UN
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