Abstract
Somalis populate an area on the Horn of Africa which includes the country of Somalia and parts of Djibouti, Kenya and Ethiopia. They share the same language, religion and culture. The majority of Somalis are pastoralists, although urbanization is a growing modern phenomenon. They belong to stratified clan or tribal structures and follow time-honored traditions based on Islamic practices and customary law, called xeer. The civil war, which began in 1988, pitted the state against certain clans and then degenerated into interclan fighting, followed by intraclan fighting. Throughout the conflict the population was subjected to atrocities: slaughter and rape was widespread, property and livestock were pillaged, infrastructure was ruined. The turmoil sent shock waves through the society, causing tremendous changes which stretched traditional coping strategies to the limit.
