Achieving Local Reconciliation in Somalia

Reducing violence and promoting social reconciliation require sufficient understanding of the causes and contributors of conflicts. This chapter identifies the causes of conflicts and pillars of social reconciliation in Puntland and across Somalia. Environmental decline and population growth have exerted pressure on already meagre resources. In rural areas, there have been conflicts following the expansion of encampments over one-time grazing land. In urban areas, land grabbing and over-exploitation of limited economic opportunities have contributed to heightened tensions and the eruption of violent conflicts among communities. Clan-based political dispositions in post-civil war Somalia have also contributed to political conflicts along clan, sub-clan, and even family lines across the country. The absence of the rule of law, state enforcement mechanisms, and abundance of weapons in civilian hands has meant that minor quarrels escalate into violent confrontations among groups, which then draw in their respective communities.