Conflict in Somalia

http://www.reuters.com/article/africaCrisis/idUSGEE5B20YO

 

Conflict in Somalia

Thu Dec 3, 2009 6:12am EST

 

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Dec 3 (Reuters) - An explosion tore through a graduation ceremony in Mogadishu on Thursday and killed at least 14 people including three government ministers, witnesses and senior government sources said.

Suspicion for the blast immediately fell on the al Shabaab group, which killed Somalia's security minister and at least 30 other people in the town of Baladwayne in June. Somalia has been mired in chaos for nearly two decades. Here are some details about the conflict:

* DESTABILISING THE REGION:

-- President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's Western-backed government is battling Islamist insurgents including the hardline al Shabaab group, which Washington accuses of being al Qaeda's proxy. -- The United States has offered military support to Somalia. It has also offered training for security forces as well as logistical and financial help.

-- The European Union said last month it planned to send some 100 troops to Uganda in 2010 to train Somali government forces. The intention is to train up to 2,000 Somali troops, which will complement other training missions and bring the total number of better-trained Somali soldiers to 6,000.

* BLOODSHED:

-- Violence in Somalia has killed more than 19,000 people since the start of 2007 and uprooted 1.5 million, and the chaos has helped fuel kidnappings as well as piracy off the coast.

-- The government and African Union have pleaded with the United Nations to send a robust peacekeeping force that could take over from the 5,200 AU troops from Uganda and Burundi who have said they are incapable of stabilising Somalia.

-- AU troops (AMISOM) troops come under near-daily attack from the rebels. In September 2009, al Shabaab hit their main Mogadishu headquarters with twin suicide car bombs that killed 17 peacekeepers, including the Burundian deputy force commander.

* ISLAMIST RULE:

-- In June 2006, Islamist militia loyal to the Somalia Islamic Courts Council seized Mogadishu after defeating U.S.-backed warlords. With tacit U.S. approval, Somalia's neighbour Ethiopia sent troops to defend the interim government in Dec. 2006. The Ethiopian force advanced rapidly, taking Mogadishu and driving the Islamists to Somalia's southern tip.

-- Since Ethiopian troops withdrew in January 2009 the biggest threat has come from al Shabaab which, controls much of southern Somalia and parts of the capital Mogadishu.

-- In April 2009, parliament voted to implement sharia law across the country in a move aimed at undermining the rebels.

-- Last month al Shabaab insurgents took over another town - Dhobley, near the Kenyan border after rival insurgents, Hizbul Islam, fled. The two groups were former allies but broke ranks over who should control the lucrative southern port of Kismayu. -- Al Shabaab's aim is to impose a strict version of Islamic law throughout Somalia. It has banned music, sport, videos, and shaving. It has also desecrated graves, beheaded rival clerics and publicly stoned to death women accused of adultery.

* ATTEMPTS AT GOVERNMENT:

-- In 2004 lawmakers elected warlord Abdullahi Yusuf as president and Ali Mohamed Gedi as prime minister to run the 14th attempt at government since Barre's fall. Gedi resigned in October 2007 and was succeeded by Nur Hassan Hussein as prime minister.

-- Yusuf himself resigned in December 2008. Somalia then elected President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, a moderate Islamist and Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke.

-- While some insurgents pledged to support the new administration, the al Shabaab group vowed to fight on.

* PIRACY:

-- Somalia's coastal waters -- strategic shipping lanes linking Asia and Europe -- have also become a focus of pirates who have made millions of dollars in ransom from hijacking vessels. In the latest seizure Somali pirates hijacked a Greek-flagged oil tanker 700 miles off the coast of Somalia last week. At least 15 ships are being held. -- NATO ships began anti-piracy operations off the Somali coast in Oct 2008, but have failed to stop the hijackings.