SOMALIA HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION 1992-1993 by G. P. ...

630 G. P. Valladares
In 1891 the great religious leader of the Somali nomads, Sayyid Muhamad
Abdile Hassan, came back to his country from the small British Protectorate of the
Southern Coast of the Aden Gulf. (iii)
Hassan, a clever man, soon understood that there was a terrible threat
menacing the Arabian world due to the expansion of the Christians; so he began to
preach resistance, launching attacks against these and neighbour ing countries in the
Ogaden lands, where he had retreated with his supporters, after being declared out
of law by the British.
The first ideas of national unity came from Sayyid Muhamad Abdile Hassan,
who died in 1920. The lack of a son to succeed him ended the resistance and
started the establishment of the colonial government in the British Somalia and in
the Italian Somalia. (iii)
From then on, the political interest of northeastern Africa turned to the plans
of the fascist government which expected to conquer the Ethiopian Kingdom. The
conflict started in 1934, resorting to the old dispute of the Ogaden boundaries
between Ethiopia and Somalia. The Ethiopian emperor - Haile Salassie - appealed
to the League of Nations. France and Great Britain supported him, but failed to
show sufficient determination so as to avoid the aggression. (III)
In May 1936 Mussolini completed the conquest of Ethiopia. Thus, the old
Italian dream of owing an empire in Oriental Africa, made up by Eritrea, Ethiopia
and Somali, became true but at least short, for it ended after five years.
Italian military colonialism brought about harmful consequences to the
communities in oriental Africa. On the other hand, the other European powers were
trying to obtain the welfare of their people. In Somalia and Libya. Italy brought
things to a standstill.
Ethiopia became independent thanks to the actions of the British troops in
1941. The two ancient colonies of Somalia and Eritrea were conquered in the same
campaign, and went on being under the British government during the Second
World War and some time later too, this being the reason for several disputes in the
United Nations.
Somalia, after similar disputes, was assigned to Italy in 1950 by the United
Nations as a territory under Fiduciary Administration Regime for 10 years; after
that time independence would be declared. The International Community agree on
the fact that during this period of time the Italian government was exceptionally
efficient.