The Roots of the Somali Crisis: An Insider's Memoir

The Roots of Somali Crisis, An Insider’s Memoiris a book by Colonel Ahmed Omar Jess published in November 2018. The book presents a systematic and holistic first-hand account of the Somali crises as told by an insider. Omar Jess aims to provide insights into the events that led to Somalia becoming a “failed state” and the failure of international military and reconciliation interventions that followed. He reveals how the unmet expectations of the Somali people and bad leadership after independence sowed the seeds of discord. The book is a masterpiece whose lessons are crucial for the process of shaping the future of a peaceful and stable Somalia.

The narrator and author of the book is a former Division Commander and Head of Military Intelligence under Siad Barre, the third president of Somalia (1969-1991) after he overthrew Mukhtar Mohamed Hussein. This explains his capacity to disclose previously unknown facts about the events that inexorably led to state collapse and war in Somalia. Jess played a significant role in overturning Siad Barre’s rule, whose failures, as he argues in the book, plunged Somalia into turmoil.