Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia in 2006: Motives and lessons learned

Abstract

Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia in late 2006 may go down in history as one of the most daring if not imprudent strategic
decision any African government has made on its neighbor. Ethiopia’s actions to invade Somalia gets more perplexing,
considering it seemed unprovoked and should have been more circumspective given Ethiopia’s own history as a
victim of unprovoked invasion by Italy and its myriad internal economic challenges. Even if Ethiopia©s goal of going
into Somalia had been purely humanitarian, the nearly two decades of instability there and the history of irredentism
and distrust between the two countries should have given Ethiopia pause to be prudent. Although not without
precedent, it is still unusual for one African country to invade another country on the scale Ethiopia did and fight a war
that was guaranteed to be bloody. Self-defense, which Ethiopia claims as reason for its military action, raises doubt
and compels an examination of the real motives for its actions in Somalia. This study explores what these motives
could have been. Using historical evidence and those from contemporary sources, the study catalogs the violence that
followed the invasion and how Ethiopia’s action aggravated Somalia’s endemic social and political ills. Ethiopia’s
actions in Somalia could not have accomplished their objectives given the fact Somalia has plunged deeper into
anarchy since the invading troops left its soil. It has also been costly both to the invader and the invaded. Other African
countries can learn an invaluable lesson from Ethiopia’s experience not to start an audacious incursion into foreign
territory without an unimpeachable reason.