The CRP in Somalia is the newest of all of the CRP country programme and, as such, is building its foundations rather than building on previous work. It seeks to conduct operationally relevant research to explore the political economy drivers of conflict, as well as the ideologies and conditions that encourage popular violence, and those that encourage peace and accountability.
Research is being conducted within the three CRP logics on a number of specific topics including on justice processes in different Somali contexts, the intersection of business and by understanding peace processes, humanitarianism and civicness.
The research is based primarily on qualitative methods, including:
- Life history interviews with individuals, including businessmen, NGO workers, elders and other public authorities;
- Observations of court cases and in-depth case studies of justice processes;
- Key informant interviews;
- Gathering documentary evidence including the collection of documents relating to conflict and dispute resolution, governance arrangements, photos, and other materials.
Our publications on Somalia
Somali Research Group
The CRP Somalia team has convened a small group of researchers, some of whom currently work for the CRP on specific assignments, and others who have been collaborating informally. The group has a collective reach throughout the Somali regions, including in neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia, and plan to work on different blog posts and analyses over the coming weeks and months.
Salman Hassan
Salman is a Field Researcher on the Conflict Research Programme. He has an MBA and is currently a doctoral candidate in business administration at the IPE-Paris Management School (Malaysia College). Salman has over five years’ experience in the private sector in Somalia.
Sahra Ahmed Koshin
Sahra is a PhD candidate, Somali Diaspora Humanitarianism in Complex Crises, UoN/KU.
Ahmed M. Musa
Ahmed M. Musa is a post-doctoral scholar at the Somali Diaspora Humanitarianism project run by the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Nairobi, Rako Research and Communication Centre (RCCC) and Rift Valley Institute (RVI) and funded by the Danish government.
Guhad Adan
Guhad Adan is an Independent Consultant and Social Transfers Coordination Facilitator (Somalia) for DAI.
Khalif Abdirahman
Khalif Abdirahman is a Senior Field Researcher. He has been involved in a number of prominent studies, for different institutions and has travelled the length and breadth of the country.
Nisar Majid
Dr Nisar Majid manages the Somalia country programme. He has worked in and on Somalia and the Somali territories of the Horn of Africa for twenty years, in various applied research capacities, including for his PhD research which focused on transnational and diaspora aspects of the Somali.
Research Projects
Dr Susanne Jaspars is a recipient of the CRP's Small Grants programme. Dr. Jaspars is currently conducting a scoping study to explore the key changes in the political economy of food over the past 10-15 years. Food is central to power in Somalia.
Her research will combine the concept of the political marketplace, with the idea of regimes of practices to examine changes in the political economy of food and the power effects of food assistance practices, in particular the interaction between them.
Research outputs:
Dr. Yaniv Voller is a Conflict Research Fellow (2018). His research is titled 'Transnational Diaspora Activism and Human Security in the Homeland: The Cases of Iraqi Kurdistan, South Sudan and Somaliland'.
Research outputs:
A political opening with uncertain outcomes is currently unfolding in Ethiopia’s Somali regional state (SRS). After the downfall of former regional president and violent autocrat Abdi Mohamed Omar ‘Iley’ in August 2018, Ethiopia’s Somali periphery is in the midst of an unprecedented political reform initiated by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and led by a new SRS executive. As the incoming SRS leadership attempts to steer the region to a peaceful 2020 elections, it faces vexed political obstacles linked to past human rights abuses, questions of political representation, relations with the federal government as well as neighboring political entities and ethnic groups.
This study takes stock and makes sense of these dynamics in Ethiopia’s SRS and highlights their impacts on developments in neighboring Somaliland and Somalia. This research is led by Dr. Tobias Hagmann.
Research outputs:
- Fast politics, slow justice: Ethiopia’s Somali region two years after Abdi Iley, LSE Conflict Research Programme, September 2020.
- Inter-ethnic violence in Ethiopia’s Somali Regional State, 2017 - 2018, LSE Conflict Research Programme, March 2020.
- Jigjiga’s autocratic modernity, LSE Conflict Research Programme Blog, February 2020.
- Relations between Somali Regional State and Somaliland, 2010 - 2019, LSE Conflict Research Programme, February 2020.
The importance and prospects of actual and future oil concessions has been gaining importance in the Horn of Africa in recent years and is the underlying reason for the ongoing maritime dispute between Kenya and Somalia that is in the International Court of Justice. In addition, the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS), has recently pushed for oil and gas exploration and licensing. This in turn opens a potentially new playing field to the competitive political marketplace in Somalia.
It is possible (or likely) that the oil prospects and budget funds may become new and principal sources of political funding in Somalia, in addition to the business community and the regional players in the Middle East. The proposed research will attempt to address how these two factors influence the dynamics of the political marketplace and their relative importance compared to other factors in terms of funding the fluctuating Somali political networks.
Research outputs:
Meet the Team
Alex de Waal
Prof Alex de Waal is the Research Programme Director for the CRP. He also leads the CRP research on both Somalia and South Sudan, and has written extensively on the Horn of Africa/Red Sea region.
Nisar Majid
Dr Nisar Majid manages the Somalia country programme. He has worked in and on Somalia and the Somali territories of the Horn of Africa for twenty years, in various applied research capacities, including for his PhD research which focused on transnational and diaspora aspects of the Somali.
Khalif Abdirahman
Khalif Abdirahman is a Senior Field Researcher. He has been involved in a number of prominent studies, for different institutions and has travelled the length and breadth of the country.
Ahmed Sharif Ibrahim
Ahmed is a 2019/20 Conflict Research Fellow. His research project is titled: The Somali diaspora as agents of state building.
Mohamed Haji Ingiriis
Mohamed is a 2019/20 Conflict Research Fellow. His research project is titled: Beyond clan politics and clan conflicts: the political bazaar and the profits of failed state in Somalia.
Dr Tobias Hagmann is an Associate Professor at Roskilde University and consultant on the CRP-Somalia Team. He is conducting research on political reform in Ethiopia’s Somali regional state.
Susanne Jaspars
Dr. Susanne Jaspars is a consultant on the CRP-Somalia Team. She is conducting research on the political economy of food in Somalia.
Joakim Gundel
Joakim is a consultant on the CRP-Somalia Team conducting research on Oil and Development Finance in the Political Marketplace in Somalia. He has worked in and on Somalia and the Somali territories for over 20 years, in various applied research capacities, including UN, WB, DFID, USAID and others, involving studies of the traditional structures, impacts of humanitarian intervention, humanitarian security, financial management and accountability and the political economy of the justice sector.
Abdeta D. Beyene
Abdeta is the Executive Director at the Centre for Dialogue, Research and Cooperation in Ethiopia and a recipient of a small grant from the Conflict Research Programme. His research is on security sector reform in Somalia.
Dr Mohamed Husein Gaas
Dr Mohamed Husein Gaas is Senior Researcher on Human Security at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). His current research focuses on governance, conflict, security, and state building in the Horn of Africa.
Abdisalam Mohamed
Abdisalam Mohamed is a Research Associate at the LSE Conflict Research Programme. He is an economist and PhD candidate at the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow. He holds a Double Masters of Science (MSc) in Economics from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) and International Islamic University in Islamabad (Pakistan).
Faduma Abukar
Dr Faduma Abukar Mursal is an Associate on the CRP-Somalia Team. She has worked among others in and on Southern Somalia, especially in her PhD research at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology which focused on the role of traders in the state formation processes in Mogadishu.