Background
The Federal Republic of Somalia1 is a country situated on the Horn of Africa, bordering Ethiopia, Kenya, and Djibouti. It was a colony of Italy2 until after the Second World War; it then came under British administration until Somali independence3 in 1960, establishing the Somali Republic. The republic lasted until 1969 when the government was overthrown5 and a new Somali Democratic Republic6 was established under the leadership of Siad Barre7. This new the government engaged in numerous wars8 with its neighbor Ethiopia, primarily over the Ogaden region9. Failures in war, in addition to the growing authoritarianism of the regime, promulgated the Somali Civil War10 in 1991. The ousting of Barre resulted in the complete collapse of the Somali political structure; the Southern parts of the country experienced particular violence with the rise of regional warlords11. The United Nations sent in a U.S.-led peacekeeping mission12 in 1993, only to withdraw in 1994 following the Battle of Mogadishu13. Further violence and the absence of a strong centralized state has caused for different regions of Somalia to be de facto14 independent.
While a new government has been established to try and remake Somalia into a centralized state, conflicting factions and warlords have prevented this15 from fully being realized and, for the most part, the country remains in a state of civil war and anarchy. As we have stated, there exists a nominal state in Somalia—the Federal Republic of Somalia—but the actual power in the region is divided up between the central government, Islamic factions16 in the south, semi-autonomous provinces17 in the north, and regional Somali warlords. The absence of a sovereign18 has created the environment which allowed for smuggling to flourish. According to a special report by the U.S. Department of State, Somalia is both a source and destination in the human trafficking trade, where women and children are taken from the southern regions and sold to buyers in the north of the country as well as to other places like the Middle East.
In addition to being fueled by the absence of a strong centralized government, distrust of minorities, like the Bantu, may also be a factor in the ethnic Somali pirates continuing their practice. The pirating landscape reached a high in 2011, where 49 of the 52 ship seizures19 were committed by Somali pirates. The situation in Somalia has had consequences on its neighbors; both Kenya and Ethiopia have intervened20 in the Civil War at least once, and the humanitarian crisis21 has led to thousands seeking asylum in neighboring Kenya22 or trying to flee the country to Ethiopia or Yemen.