ABSTRACT
Humanitarian assistance represents a substantial resource, which in the context of intra-state war and extreme scarcity can be subject to attack and predation. This was the case in Somalia, where the resources brought in by the humanitarian agencies made a difference in other ways than saving lives: they also contributed to sustaining the structures of violence in Somali society rather than helping to get rid of them. This happened because the agencies felt compelled to deal with the warlords, whereby they risked becoming sucked into the political economy of violence. The aggregate result was that since 1991 the humanitarian assistance interventions have contributed to the propping up of “warlords” in southern and central Somalia. Hence the proposed hypothesis of this chapter is that by being involved with the political structures of violence in Somalia the agents providing humanitarian assistance played a significant role in impeding a long-term solution to the conflict.
