From 1969 to 1990, Somali dictator Major General Siad Barre oversaw a campaign of widespread atrocities that decimated Somali civil society. In the 1980s, the Somali Armed Forces launched a counterinsurgency campaign against civilians from the Isaaq clan in the northwest. This campaign culminated in the destruction of Hargeisa, where more than 5,000 civilians were killed. When Barre’s regime finally collapsed in 1991, under the pressure of multiple rebellions, Somalia was plunged into a chaotic internal conflict from which it has yet to emerge. Today, Somalia is universally cited as a “failed state”.
