EN
This article examines historical relations of the states and the root causes of conflicts in the contemporary Horn of Africa. The Horn of Africa includes Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Sudan. It is one of the most affected regions by conflict. During the last decades, this region has been engulfed in spiraling conflict, which caused widespread famine, disease, displacement and a great loss of life. The infrastructure and the economy of the region is also badly damaged. The intrastate conflicts are mostly caused because of the ethnic based states, where one ethnic group monopolizes every aspect of political and economic power over other ethnic groups. Although ethnicity, differences in values, religion, ideological perceptions could be mentioned, often as some of the factors; the root cause of the conflict can be traced back to the era of colonialism. Territorial boundaries originally brought about by colonial partition are today the sources of interstate conflict in the region. One of the crucial prerequisite for the peaceful resolution of conflicts and maintenance of peace agreements is based on the political willing of leaders in the region. Personal ambitions, corruptions, incompetence and lack of accountability of decision makers, aggravates political, social and economic instability in the Horn of Africa. In the past decades and still recently hundreds of thousands of people have fallen victims of conflicts caused by ruthless dictators of these countries. In addition to this, the Horn of Africa was also a battlefield between the rival super powers during the Cold War, which contributed to the devastation of social and economic life of the people.