Book
Me Against My Brother (2000) by Scott Peterson: a reporter in Somalia, Sudan and Rwanda
Me Against My Brother: At War in Somalia, Sudan, and Rwanda is a 2000 book by the American journalist Scott Peterson, published by Routledge. It draws on his reporting from the three countries in the 1990s, including Somalia during the UN intervention, when he was injured by a crowd in Mogadishu on 12 July 1993 after a US helicopter attack on a house where Somali elders had gathered. It examines the wars, the aid operations and US policy.
Me Against My Brother
- Author
- Scott Peterson
- Year
- 2000
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Language
- English
- ISBN
- 9780415930635
- Sources
- 9 sources
The book
Me Against My Brother: At War in Somalia, 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 in May 2000 (357 pages) (Christian Science Monitor review; Routledge; Kirkus Reviews).
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 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). 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; Wikipedia). Peterson was injured: "The mob surrounded me and a machete smashed into my head," he writes (Kirkus Reviews; author's excerpt).
The background is on UNOSOM I, 1992 to 1993, The UN intervention, 1992 to 1995 and The 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; Kirkus Reviews). He writes about the tense relationship between the military and the press, and about humanitarian missions that came to take sides (Kirkus Reviews).
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).
- Kirkus Reviews praised its "agile and alert" prose (Kirkus Reviews).
- The Washington Post and the Irish Times also reviewed it (Irish Times).
Where to read it
- Editions: Open Library
- In a library: WorldCat
Related pages
Sources
- Christian Science Monitor review · csmonitor.com
- Routledge · routledge.com
- Kirkus Reviews · kirkusreviews.com
- Wikipedia, Abdi House raid · en.wikipedia.org
- Committee to Protect Journalists · refworld.org
- author's excerpt · s-peterson.com
- Irish Times · irishtimes.com
- Open Library · openlibrary.org
- WorldCat · search.worldcat.org
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Where this matters
Same era
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- Birmingham (Somali diaspora)About 17,000 to 21,600 Somalis live in Birmingham (Census 2021), mostly in Nechells, Newtown, Small Heath and Alum Rock. History, work, health and ties home.
- Bristol (Somali diaspora)9,167 people in Bristol identified as Somali or Somalilander in Census 2021, the city's largest minority group. Where they live, work, housing, leaders and ties home.
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- DjiboutiAbout 13,900 refugees from Somalia live in Djibouti (Aug 2026): numbers since 1990, Ali Addeh, Holl-Holl, the 2017 refugee law, Arta 2000 and 2025 returns.
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