Somalia has been mired in chaos for nearly two decades. Following are facts on a conflict, which has killed thousands:
Bloodshed and Peacekeeping
- President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's Western-backed government has been battling Islamist insurgents including the hardline al Shabaab group, linked to al-Qaeda. The government controls no more than a few blocks of the capital, Mogadishu, with the help of African Union troops.
- Violence in Somalia has killed more than 21,000 people since the start of 2007 and uprooted at least 1.5 million. The chaos has fuelled kidnappings, as well as piracy off the coast.
- The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) has 6,300 troops helping to bolster the lawless country's transitional government, according to AU sources and the UN. The AU last month said it would add an additional 4,000 troops to its peace force. Hundreds of mainly Ugandan troops arrived in Mogadishu yesterday to strengthen the peacekeeping force.
- AMISOM troops have come under near-daily attack from rebels. In one major attack 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. Two Ugandans from AMISOM were killed in July.
Islamist rule
- In June 2006, Islamist militia loyal to the Somalia Islamic Courts Council seized Mogadishu after defeating US-backed warlords. With tacit US approval, Somalia's neighbour Ethiopia sent troops to defend the interim government in December 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. Earlier this year, Hizbul Islam and al Shabaab rebel groups took the town of Beledweyne, capital of the Hiraan region in central Somalia from pro-government militia.
- Al Shabaab wants to impose a strict version of Islamic law throughout Somalia.
- In April 2009, parliament voted to implement sharia law across the country in a move aimed at undermining the rebels.
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 Siad 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.
- On 17 April, 2010 al Shabaab fired mortar rounds shortly after the president and the parliament speaker landed to prepare for a meeting of parliament, its first since December 2009.
- Parliament did finally meet on 16 May and voted overwhelmingly to oust Sharmarke and his Western-backed government. But the vote was deemed unconstitutional. On 20 May, Somalia's president reinstated Sharmarke and his cabinet.
Piracy
- Somalia's coastal waters - strategic shipping lanes linking Asia and Europe - have also become a focus of pirates who have made tens of millions of dollars in ransoms from hijacking vessels.
- In May, Hizbul Islam seized the pirate haven of Haradheere without a fight and pledged to take control of more towns in the region.
- At least 17 ships are being held by pirates. In the latest seizure on 2 August a Panama-flagged cargo ship was attacked and hijacked in the Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor in the Gulf of Aden.
Reuters
