Berbera 2012

District Conflict and Security Assessment Report

Observatory of
Conflict and Violence
Prevention
 Observatory of
Conflict and Violence
Prevention

Berbera 2012
District Conflict and Security Assessment Report
 Acknowledgments
The Somali Observatory of Conflict and Violence Prevention (OCVP)
would like to thank the following:

Youth Volunteers for Development and Environment Conservation

(YOVENCO), which is local non- governmental organization
operating in Berbera district for supporting OCVP conducting focus
group discussions and key informant interviews.

Special thanks to interviewees and survey participants who give us

their time and frankly shared their thoughts on such sensitive issues
with the research team.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Somalia, in

Berbera
particular, the Community Security project within the Governance and
Rule of Law Programme, for providing financial support during this
survey exercise.

Picture 1: Map of Somaliland and Puntland illustrating the location of Berbera

The Observatory of Conflict and Violence Prevention

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Table of Contents
Overview ................................................................ 2
Picture 1: Map of Somaliland
and Puntland illustrating the
location of Berbera .............................................. 1
1. Introduction..........................................................3
2. Methodology .....................................................4
2.1 Questionnaires ...........................................4
2.2 Focus Group Discussions ...........................4
2.3 Key Informant Interviews...........................4
3. Perceived Performance of
Security, Justice, and Governance
Actors ....................................................................... 5
3.1 Security Provider ....................................... 5
3.2 Justice Provider........................................... 7
3.3 Governance Provider................................ 8
4. Forms of Insecurity and Violence................... 10
Authors
Abdirahman Sheikh Hassan, Lead Researcher (OCVP)
Abdullahi Mohamed Odowa, Senior Social Researcher
(General Director, OCVP)
Ilyas Ibrahim Mohamed, Data Analyst (OCVP)
Nienke Hiemstra, Researcher (OCVP)
Overview
Key findings from the focus group discussions are as follows:
Focus group discussions were held with youth (men and women
in one group), women, elders and religious leaders, IDP camp
residents, and business leaders. Youth participants pointed out
that terrorism is the most significant safety concern in the district;
they think that Sahil's close proximity to Yemen may offer
terrorists a main transportation route. In addition, rape has
recently become a safety concern, together with an increasing
number of robberies after dark.
Participants of the womens focus group discussion said that they
do not face major safety concerns and that Sahil is the safest
region in Somaliland. However, although the numbers were not
alarming according to the women, rape was mentioned as the
biggest concern. There had been some instances of child rape
and rape against women from other regions by young boys from
Berbera. Participants of the religious leaders and elders focus
group and IDP focus group both confirmed this. In addition,
business leaders expressed their concern with regard to recent
family-based disputes and muggings of women after dark.
Youth, women and IDPs mentioned the community committee as
the institution that is best able to prevent or stop violence at the
local level. Other institutions that were mentioned by these groups
were the police and community elders. In addition, youth focus
group participants mentioned the regional security committee as
a powerful agency, whereas women emphasized the importance
of the role of courts. The elders and religious leaders and
business leaders mentioned the police and elders and religious
leaders as effective institutions/individuals with regard to
preventing and stopping violence.
With regard to the performance of the local government,
opinions of the focus group participants were mixed. Youth
focus group participants were generally unsatisfied with the
performance; sanitation was mentioned as the most important
area of work.
Participants of the womens focus group praised the local
government for constructing and rehabilitating roads and the
redistribution of land. However, this latter issue has also been
criticized as the government had illegally confiscated land from
people. Both participants from the IDP and business leaders focus
group confirmed that the government has to improve sanitation,
while the elders and religious leaders said that the current local
government as performed better than the previous ones.
2
 Intrduction
Key findings from the key informant
(mayor, prosecutor, community elder
and religious leader) interviews are
as follows:
Both the key local elder and the prosecutor
mentioned a conflict over regionally rooted
economic interests regarding Berberas Cement
Factory as the most serious conflict in the region.
Recently, the most serious manifestation of the
conflict resulted from meetings organized by
members of the Ciise Muuse clan.
The conflict is not a traditional clan based
conflict; there were internal disagreements
within the clan. The conflict has reached critical
levels and is yet to be resolved.
According to the key local elder, security is the
most significant community concern, whilst
another major issue is poverty, against which
the local government currently does not take
any action. Besides his discontent with the local
administration, he also gives suggestions for
areas where performance improvements are
within reach: re-distribution of land and speci-
fically in the sub- district of Waraabe u
Taagga important steps can be taken through
improvement of water supply and establishment
of religious and formal schools.
The prosecutor held office for only two weeks
at the time that the interview was conducted.
According to his observation, rape cases and
homicide occur more frequently as compared
to Hargeisa. Most crimes are negotiated by
the clans of victims and perpetrators. He holds
the opinion that the local government stays
behind in providing community services
(sanitation, waste management) compared
to other regions and he is concerned about
the high unit prices of electricity, keeping it
beyond the reach of many poor people.
The mayor confirms the concerns regarding
energy prices. On the other hand, his view on
security issues deviates from the other
interviewees: rape cases are sometimes
reported, but no murder case had been
reported over the past 12 months. He rates
the performance of his local government as
adequate.
3
Regular assessments of issues affecting
community safety and security are critical in
providingevidence for effective programming,
and to allow for continual monitoring and
evaluation of safety and security interventions.
However, such evidence based programming at
a district level does not currently exist in Somalia.
Measuring the outcome and impact of interventions
to deal with insecurity is important in order to
advance collective understanding of what works
and what does not. The Somali Observatory of
Conflict and Violence Prevention (OCVP) is an
apolitical and neutral Somali organization, which
collectively aims at building Somali capacity to
mitigate violence andinsecurity in a sustainable
manner.
The objective of the survey is to annually assess
the performance of security, justice, and governance
providers, and levels of conflict and violence at the
district level in Somalia, in order to assist in the
development of District Council Annual Work Plans.
The questionnaire was designed to gather
quantitative data, in combination with the data
from focus group discussions and key informant
interviews. The findings of this analysis will be
used in the preparation of the annual develop-
ment plan of Berbera, as part of provision of local
governance across Somalia.
Targeting level of deployment, level of use and
perception by the community on justice, security
and governance providers, as well as community
perceptions on conflict and violence, the district
assessment will be divided into four key sections.
Following this introduction, methodologies used will
be described in section 2.
The remaining sections present the perceived
performance of security, justice, and governance
actors. Finally, the last section looks at perceptions
of conflict and violence.
 2. Methodology
This District Conflict and Security Assessment
Report for Berbera district was prepared
through compilation of data and information
gathered through three research tools and
methodologies: questionnaires, focus group
discussions and key informant interviews.
2.1 Questionnaires
The first tool used was questionnaires. The
questionnaire aims at providing the necessary
quantitative information for outlining an
accurate picture of the level of deployment,
level of use and perception of Security, Justice
and Governance providers, and finally, conflict
and violence. The questionnaires were admini-
stered to 80 households, approximately 80
people (66.3% were female and 62.5% were
married) from the four district divisions of
Berbera, namely: Barwaaqo, Burao Sheikh,
Daaroole and Wadajir (including the IDP
settlement Jaame Laaye). Figures 1 and 2 show
characteristics of the respondents.
4
2.2 Focus Group Discussions
The second tool used is focus groups to capture
perceptions about the nature of insecurities in
district subdivisions, and its victims and perpe-
trators. The researchers from the Observatory
of Conflict and Violence Prevention convened
the focus groups in October, bringing together
women, youth, elders and religious leaders,
business leaders and IDPs of the district. Partici-
pants were asked to compile a list of all major
types of violence experienced in Berbera. They
were then led through a process of describing
the causes, locations, times, victims and perpe-
trators. Finally, they were asked to identify the
individuals or institutions that they trusted to either
prevent or respond to violence.
2.3 Key Informant Interviews
Qualitative interviews were conducted by the
researchers from the Observatory of Conflict
and Violence Prevention. These interviews were
carried out between 13-17th of October 2012,
covering the district of Berbera. Each interview
lasted about half an hour, and four individuals,
including key district elder, key religious leader,
prosecutor, and mayor of Berbera were inter-
viewed separately.
 3. Perceived Performance of
Security, Justice, and Governance
Actors
Both the questionnaires, focus group discussions
and key informant interviews inquired about the
performance of the various public authorities or
civil society actors ableto respond to insecurity,
namely the police, the courts, local authorities,
religious leaders and community elders.

The following sub-sections will present a

perspective of the perceived performance of
these different actors, including by type of crime.
More than three-fourth of respondents (87.5%)
3.1 Security Provider pointed out the existence of police in their
The questionnaires examined the level of general community, of which 40 per cent said they do not
trust afforded to the police by asking respondents know the number of police personnel that operate
to state whether their trust was very high, fairly in their community. 22.9 per cent of respondents
high, fairly low or very low. 70.1 per cent of said there are ten to fifty police officials, while
respondents said they perceive the police as 15.7 per cent said there are five.
trustworthy, of which 62.5 per cent indicated that
they highly trust the police. On the other hand,
27.5 per cent of respondents said they have a
low level of trust in the police (Figure 3).

Moreover, 52.9 per cent of the respondents that

Furthermore, there was no significant difference
between male and female respondents with
regard to the level of trust afforded to the police
(Figure 4).
Additionally, 50 per cent of respondents who
afforded a low level of trust to the police were
residents from Burao Sheikh Division of Berbera.
On the contrary, all Daaroole respondents said to
have a high level of trust in the police, of which
80 per cent indicated very high (Figure 5).
acknowledged police existence said that their
premises are situated at less than 10 minutes
walking distance from where they live. 37.1 percent
said the police are 11 to 20 minutes away from
their homes.
As figures 6 shows, there is no significant difference
between the responses of female and male
respondents with regard to police existence.

5
Remarkably, while all respondents from Daaroole
said to have a high level of trust in the police, the
majority of respondents that indicated that there
was no police were also from Daaroole. In addition,
the opposite goes for the respondents from Burao
Sheikh.
The overwhelming majority of respondents (83.8%)
said they would also contact the police for serious
crimes,3 and 13.8 per cent said they would contact
a court. As figure 10 shows, male and female
respondents have similar preferences regarding
which agency to contact in case of a serious crime.

Whereas the majority afforded low levels of trust Overall, it can be concluded that the police and
to the police, all respondents affirmed the existence courts appeared to be the favourite course for
of police (Figure 7). Berbera respondents when dealing with crimes.

Over half of respondents (58.8%) would contact the

police in the event of a civil case1, and 37.5 per cent
would contact a court.

The difference between male and female choices is

insignificant, as 62.3 per cent of female respondents
compared to 51.8 per cent of male respondents
would contact the police for a civil case (Figure 8).

With respect to petty crimes,2 respondents said to

contact either the police or the court, however, an
overwhelming majority (85%) of respondents said
they would approach the police. Figure 9 illustrates
how the preferences were subdivided between
female and male respondents. 1. Crimes include land dispute, and divorce
2. Crimes include robberies
3. Crimes include rape and murder

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3.2 Justice Provider
The vast majority of respondents (80%) said they
were confident in the formal justice providers. Most
male respondents (59.3%) were fairly confident in
the formal justice system, whereas most female
respondents (50.9%) said to be very confident
(Figure 11).

With respect to the gender division, 70.4 percent

of the male and 64.2 per cent of the female
respondents said that there existed no court in
their neighbourhood (Figure 14).

53.8 per cent of respondents who said they are

not confident in the formal justice system were
residents of Barwaaqo. 50 per cent of Burao
Sheikh respondents as well as 45 per cent of
Daaroole respondents said they are fairly confident
in the system. Three-fourth of Wadajir respondents The majority of respondents (68%) who said
said they are very confident (Figure 12). that there exist courts were residents from
Wadajir division of Berbera (Figure 15).

52 per cent of respondents said they have to

Only 31.3 per cent of respondents indicated that walk less than 20 minutes to reach the court. There
there are courts in their community, of which 52 was no significant difference with regard to this
percent said there is one court (Figure 13). between the various divisions (Figure 16).

1. Crimes include land dispute, and divorce

7

Only six respondents said to have heard of a
legal aid clinic, of which only one respondent, who
had been referred by a family member, had used
it once in the last 12 months for land dispute. She
consequently received a judgement that was
enforced.
Nearly one-fourth (18 respondents, 22.5%) of
respondents had used courts in the last 12 months
for land/water disputes, robbery, assaults and
household violence issues. Only four cases did not
receive judgement. In addition, of the cases that
received a judgment, one had not been enforced.
Although respondents from Wadajir showed high
confidence in courts, only one of the respondents
had used it in the last 12 months (Figure 17).
8
On the other hand, only 10 respondents (12.5%)
had used local elders in the last12 months for
land/water dispute, robbery and household
violence. Only two of them did not receive
judgement. As the figure below shows, none of
the respondents from Wadajir had used a local
elder for solving conflicts in the last 12 months.
Only five respondents used religious leaders
in the last 12 months for land/water disputes,
household violence and assault; 2 from Daaroole,
2 from Burao Sheikh and one from Barwaaqo.
They all received a judgement that was
subsequently enforced.
3.3 Governance Provider
Nearly half of respondents (47.5%), of which
84.2 percent were female, said they are not
familiar with their representatives in the local
council (Figure 19).
The responses differed significantly with respect to
the gender of respondents. Whereas a majority of
female respondents (60.4%) said they are not
familiar with their representatives, the vast majority
of male respondents (77.8%) said they are familiar
with their representatives (Figure 20).
Only 15 per cent (twelve respondents, of which nine
were female) of respondents believe it is necessary
to have an elected official to represent them in the
district council. 6 of them were residents of Wadijir
division, and 70 per cent of all respondents from
Wadijir believe that it is important to have elected
officials. On the contrary, none of the Barwaaqo
respondents said it is necessary to have elected
officials for their representation (Figure 22).

From the people that are unfamiliar with their district

council representatives, residents from Barwaaqo
division formed the major part. 80 per cent of them
was not familiar with the representatives (Figure 21).

Furthermore, only five (three female) respondents had

participated in local government consultations in the last
12 months. Three of them were from Wadajir, and none of
them were from Burao Sheikh. Four respondents had
participated in at least two local consultation meetings.

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 4. Forms of Insecurity and Violence

Participants in focus group discussions mentioned

different types of security concerns to the local
community that fuel conflict and social unrest in
the district of Berbera. This includes terrorism,
robberies, muggings, rape, substance abuse and
family disputes. In addition, youth unemployment,
electricity, and health care were mentioned as
concerns.

4.1 Conflict and Violence

Twelve respondents (nine from Daaroole) said they
had witnessed conflict in the last 12 month; between
The overwhelming majority (91.3%) of Berbera
one and five conflicts each. The total number of
respondents said they feel safe when walking
conflicts adds up to 26, and 19 of these conflicts
alone after dark; 84.9 per cent of these respo-
turned into violence. However, no one had been
ndents said they feel even very safe (Figure 24).
killed. The majority of conflicts (8 in total) were
caused by family disputes. The remaining conflicts
Four of the seven respondents who acknowledged
were over land and water, or occurred as a result
feeling unsafe when walking alone after dark were
of power struggle.
residents from Burao Sheikh Division of Berbera.
Furthermore, 27.5 per cent (an equal number of
female and male respondents, 11 each) of respo-
ndents had witnessed a crime against someone
outside their household in the last 12 months. The
majority of them (59.1%) were residents of Burao
Sheikh. Only one respondent from Wadjir said she
had witnessed a crime in the last 12 months
(Figure 23).

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 District Conflict and
Security Assessment Report
Berbera District 2012

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