The Conversation: 'Black Hawk Down returns: how local conflicts become regional'

By Stefan Wolff. Twenty years ago, on 3 and 4 October 1993, the so-called Battle of Mogadishu, also referred to as Black Hawk Down, raged in the Somali capital. Two decades on, this region of East Africa still suffers from the instability anchored by the collapsed Somalian state, and the inability of local and international actors to deal with it effectively. The conflict in Somalia which has and continues to devastate the country has proliferated well beyond its borders, drawing in neighbouring countries, regional and international organisations, organised crime networks, and the Yemeni branch of al Qaeda.