Khalif Abdirahman and Nisar Majid explore a real-life example of conflict resolution in El Berde, Somalia, where a conversation at a family wedding in the UK sparks a cross-continental effort to prevent a local dispute from escalating into violence.
Through a coordinated effort involving diaspora and local interventions, the situation was diffused, highlighting the importance of careful and timely intervention in calming tensions.
El Berde, Somalia – From a UK Wedding to Transnational Conflict Mitigation
As a research programme following peace and conflict issues throughout the Somali-speaking sub-region, our researchers are themselves sometimes involved in conflict mitigation and peacebuilding initiatives, as is the case in this short story.
El Berde is a town in Bakool region, very close to the border with Ethiopia. The town is predominantly home to a combination of Ogaden (- Aulihan) and Rahanweyn (- Hadame) interests while much of the surrounding area is under the influence of Al Shabaab (AS). The Somali Regional State (SRS) of Ethiopia and the Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) also have an influence on security in the town, given the long-standing buffer zone that Ethiopia has at its border areas.
Khalif Abdirahman, from the PeaceRep Somalia programme, was at a family wedding in Birmingham in the UK in August of this year. A member of his extended family was getting married. After the wedding, some of the family sat together to have tea with each other, and as part of this discussion a couple of relatives raised a problem that had developed in El Berde.
One of their relatives had been arrested and put in prison in El Berde. He was a small-scale trader, who uses small 3-wheel vehicles to take basic goods from the town to the surrounding areas that are under AS influence. His vehicles pass through the town checkpoints on a regular basis, where he pays a small fee as he conducts his business, and is therefore well-known to both the government checkpoint operators and to AS.
On one of his recent trips, as two of his vehicles were passing through the checkpoint, he was called by the checkpoint operators who wanted to increase the fee. After a discussion and in his frustration, he exclaimed that ‘we’re not going to argue about money!’. The vehicles were released and that seemed to be the end of the story. However, a few days later AS attacked the checkpoint and killed several of the attending soldiers, who were all from the same local sub-clan. One of the injured soldiers, who survived the attack, explained what the trader had stated on the phone, and this was interpreted by some as a curse or a threat that was linked to the attack, effectively accusing the trader of having been somehow involved. He was duly arrested by the local police. The arrested man was a distant relative of Khalif’s, but well-known to some of those at the wedding.
The relatives of the arrested trader and the local police soon realised that there was no connection, and it was merely a coincidence that AS had attacked soon after the frustrated outburst. However, the powerful local sub-clan, who had provided the soldiers at the checkpoint, had lost several of their clan members, some of whom were not willing to see him released and promised they would kill him if he was. The trader’s own relatives were now becoming agitated in response and threatening to release him by force.
As we have been reporting in other locations, small incidents can quickly escalate into a series of revenge killings that can and do lead to far more deaths as, unfortunately, was the case in Galkayo last year.
Aware of a potential worsening of tensions, Khalif decided to respond to the issue, raised at the wedding, and see what he could do. He contacted an influential friend based in Kismayo who he knows well and has contacts and influence in El Berde. This friend identified another person, based in Canada, with influence in El Berde, who he thought could help. In looking for people that could help, Khalif and his friend in Kismayo had to identify not only individuals with potential influence, but whom they thought would actually be motivated to assist in such a matter; a careful consideration as this excluded several people whose names came up.
Through discussions between these three individuals, one based in Somalia, one in the UK and one in Canada, none of whom were based in El Berde, support and encouragement was given to elders on the ground to try and mitigate the inflammatory talk and calm the situation, where tensions were high and weapons were being gathered. By this stage, everyone knew that the imprisoned man was innocent, but the police were not ready to release him yet as the situation was still tense and he might be attacked if released.
One of the lines of argument utilised up by elders and religious leaders from the imprisoned man’s clan was that they should not act like those we often criticise – as ‘war mongers’. In this light, a local sheikh stated that, ‘it is true, there is only one man in prison, don’t let it turn into a bigger conflict.’
The imprisoned man was held for 60 days but was eventually released without further escalation, as a result of the combined efforts of those on the ground and those further away, including in the diaspora.
For Khalif, there were several important lessons from this long-distance engagement by himself and his two colleagues. One, was that it gave additional weight to the efforts of local actors who were trying to mitigate a further escalation. Secondly, it helped to mitigate against diaspora who sometimes get involved to inflame rather than reduce tensions. Thirdly, early intervention (as in the expression in the title) can be extremely helpful and is something that political elites in country could usefully do more often.
Explore all PeaceRep Somalia research here.