Abstract
Internal violence has been plaguing Somalia as government forces battle against two major
non-State actors, Islamic State in Somalia (ISS) and Al-Shabaab. The activities of ISS and Al-
Shabaab have led to forced marriages, maiming, loss of lives, and destruction of property.
Owing to the scale of the activity of these non-State actors, the Somali government and its
allies are unable to respond effectively through conventional law enforcement, which, in turn,
limits the protections offered by domestic law. In response, this study employs academic deskbased
research to determine if there are two parallel non-international armed conflicts (NIACs)
ongoing in Somalia. Firstly, the study determines if there is a NIAC between Somali Armed
Forces in the fight against Al-Shabaab. Secondly, the study determines if there is a NIAC
between Somali Armed Forces in the fight against ISS. The temporal range is limited to events
between 2009 and November 2024. The existence of such NIACs will trigger the application
of the relevant international humanitarian law (IHL), more specifically the law of NIAC
(LoNIAC) which includes Common Article 3 (CA3). This body of law regulates NIACs and
offers protection to certain categories of persons including civilians. It is thus necessary to
determine if these two violent fighting relationships constitute NIACs as this will determine
the applicability of and thus, the protections offered under IHL. Findings show that the conflicts
do amount to NIACs. That is, the conflicts meet the Tadić threshold as they involve government
forces fighting against organised non-State groups that have formal command structures, wield
sophisticated weapons, control territory, and can mount protracted violent attacks.