The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation

political insecurities, debt and poverty, were some of the issues that
triggered and led to both the collapse of the Somali state and the militarized
violence. In their war against the military government, the armed
opposition groups who were organized along clan lines indirectly promised
the Somali people that they would bring good governance, justice, and
better opportunities for all, and sought the support of their clansmen
and women. After the armed opposition groups succeeded in ousting
Siad Barre from power, they failed to restore order and establish a civilian
government that could deliver security, development, justice, fairness and
democracy. Instead, they subjected the people whom they were liber -
ating from military dictatorship to more violence, killings and displacement.
Thus, chaos, lawlessness, and militarized violence have con -
tinued to haunt the people of Somalia.
The protracted militarized violence has destroyed trust among Somali
people. It has also eroded respect of the young generation for the elderly
including any respect for social authorities like clan and religious leaders.
One of the outcomes of the militarized violence and the lawlessness is
that it shifted the authority once held by the elderly in the clan and
among religious leaders, to the younger generation. In other words,
heav ily armed young men were no longer interested in abiding by the
authority of the elderly leaders from their respective families and communities.
This loss of authority of the clan and religious leaders to young
men led to massive killings, rape, destruction and displacement. The revival
of clan and religious leaders’ authority in some parts of Somalia,
such as Puntland, has enabled the people to bring peace and order, and
most of all, to break the chain of violence by rehabilitating the youth
through education and employment. Members of civil society, often led
by women, also play an essential role in diminishing the vulnerability of
youth through the provision of education, skill training and livelihoods.
Warlords and their clan-organized militias were the aggressors of the tragedy
that has been haunting war-torn Somalia. In my view, the protracted
militarized violence in Somalia has gone through four stages:
The first stage, from 1990 to the mid-’90s, is what I call the era of warlords
vs. the military government. During this stage, the armed opposition
groups were organized on a clan basis, and the warlords who were their
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