High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Somali Civil War is an ongoing civil war taking place in Somalia. The conflict, which began in 1991, has caused destabilisation throughout the country, with the current phase of the conflict seeing the Somali government losing substantial control of the state to rebel forces. The unrest initially consisted of a series of clashes between various tribalist factions, but since the mid-2000s took a militant Islamist tone.