The root causes and consequences of the recurring violent conflicts

While droughts are not uncommon in the Horn of Africa, the decisive factors which have transformed the current drought into a famine are essentially political in nature. Somalia, which has been wracked by civil war since the collapse of its central government in 1991, epitomizes this. This paper argue that competition for resources and power, repression by the military regime and the colonial legacy are the background causes of the conflict. Politicized clan identity, the availability of weapons and the presence of a large number of unemployed youth have exacerbated the problem.