# Me Against My Brother (2000) by Scott Peterson: a reporter in Somalia, Sudan and Rwanda

> Scott Peterson's Me Against My Brother (2000): his reporting from Somalia during the UN intervention, the 12 July 1993 raid he witnessed, the book's sections on Sudan and Rwanda, and its reviews.

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Last checked: 2026-11-12
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## The book

**Me Against My Brother: At War in Somalia, [Sudan](/en/diaspora/sudan/), and Rwanda** is by **Scott Peterson**, an American journalist who reported on Africa's wars in the 1990s and later became a correspondent and bureau chief for the Christian Science Monitor. It was published by Routledge in New York and [London](/en/diaspora/london/) in May 2000 (357 pages) ([Christian Science Monitor review](https://csmonitor.com/2000/0504/p17s2.html); [Routledge](https://www.routledge.com/Me-Against-My-Brother-At-War-in-Somalia-Sudan-and-Rwanda/Peterson/p/book/9780415930635); [Kirkus Reviews](https://kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/scott-peterson/me-against-my-brother)).

## The Somalia section

Peterson was in Mogadishu during the US-led and UN interventions of 1992 to 1995. On 12 July 1993, during the UN hunt for General [Mohamed Farah](/en/people/mo-farah/) Aidid, US helicopters attacked a house in Mogadishu where, according to Peterson and Somali accounts, a group of elders had gathered to discuss how to make peace ([Wikipedia, Abdi House raid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdi_House_raid)). When journalists went to the scene afterwards, an angry crowd attacked them. Four journalists working for international news agencies were killed, among them the photographer Dan Eldon ([Committee to Protect Journalists](https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/cpj/1994/en/81165); [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdi_House_raid)). Peterson was injured: "The mob surrounded me and a machete smashed into my head," he writes ([Kirkus Reviews](https://kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/scott-peterson/me-against-my-brother); [author's excerpt](https://s-peterson.com/excerpt-death-in-mogadishu)).

The background is on [UNOSOM I, 1992 to 1993](/en/history/unosom-i-1992-1993/), [The UN intervention, 1992 to 1995](/en/history/un-intervention-1992-1995/) and [The Battle of Mogadishu, 1993](/en/history/battle-of-mogadishu-1993/).

## Its wider argument

The book covers Somalia, the war in southern Sudan and the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Peterson examines what reviewers called the "aid game" between governments, the UN and aid agencies, including how relief in Sudan sometimes fed the war, and argues that US policy towards Africa swung between neglect, overreaction and abandonment ([Christian Science Monitor review](https://csmonitor.com/2000/0504/p17s2.html); [Kirkus Reviews](https://kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/scott-peterson/me-against-my-brother)). He writes about the tense relationship between the military and the press, and about humanitarian missions that came to take sides ([Kirkus Reviews](https://kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/scott-peterson/me-against-my-brother)).

## How it was received

- Peter I. Rose, a sociologist at Smith College, wrote in the Christian Science Monitor: "This is not a pretty book. But it is a terribly important one" ([Christian Science Monitor](https://csmonitor.com/2000/0504/p17s2.html)).
- Kirkus Reviews praised its "agile and alert" prose ([Kirkus Reviews](https://kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/scott-peterson/me-against-my-brother)).
- The Washington Post and the Irish Times also reviewed it ([Irish Times](https://www.irishtimes.com/news/anarchy-agony-africa-1.280902)).

## Where to read it

- Editions: [Open Library](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL1981834W)
- In a library: [WorldCat](https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=Me+Against+My+Brother+Peterson)

## Related pages

- [Black Hawk Down (1999), Mark Bowden](/en/books/black-hawk-down-bowden/)
- [Books about Somalis, 1991 to 2005](/en/history/books-about-somalis-1991-2005/)

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