The 1988 Ethiopian-Somali accord triggered the civil wars that destroyed Somalia

Evidence

In retrospect, the peace accord signed by the Ethiopian and Somali heads of state in April 1988, obliging each party to terminate support for the other’s Somali dissidents, can be seen as the final precipitant to the vicious civil wars which, with the general collapse of governmental institutions as well as the economy (on an external aid life-support system for years), effectively destroyed Somalia well before the actual overthrow of Siyad in January 1991. — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 613

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the earlier chapters on Siyad’s regime and the Ogaden war diplomacy; also links to the broader literature on how superpower-client peace accords trigger local conflict. — connects to: Ethiopia profited from the war at Somalia’s expense.; The 1988 Ethiopian-Somali peace accord triggered Somalia’s collapse, not Siyad’s overthrow; Siyad’s survivalism reinforced Somali segmentary politics to Ethiopia’s advantage (+5 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 613

Broader Connections

• Civil war devastated farmland and killed 300,000 Somalis by famine #expands (0.50)
• Somali nationalism burned out and clan divisions violently reasserted themselves #complicates (0.40) — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 4