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 Som…, loc. 613