Somalia forms new government

Halimo Yarey who co-chairs a committee to select parliamentarians to form a new government said:"We have 202 members readied now and we are working on the reviewing of 40 others that were passed today and we hope the first parliament session will be held around [Monday]," He went on:"The rest of the list is still pending because of inter-clan argument and other reasons related to a lack of fulfillment of the conditions." Somalians do not get to elect this parliament nor the president.

The new president and legislature will end the 8 year reign of the graft-ridden, ineffectual, western-backed Transitional Federal Government'. Throughout much of its rule the UN-backed government ruled only over part of Mogadishu the capital. However, with the withdrawal of Al Shabab from Mogadishu the area controlled by the government has expanded. Somalia has lacked a stable government since 1991.African union and other African troops have however made territorial gains against the Islamic rebels.

Despite the approval of a provisional constitution the country faces multiple problems including pervasive corruption. Somalia has been battling poverty and the government survives only on foreign aid. The corruption and lack of programs to combat poverty help Islamic radicals gain converts. The members of the committee to chose the legislators were chosen from dominant clans and the committee was rfie with clan rivalry.

The parliament will consist of a 275 member lower house and an upper house yet to be chosen with a maximum membership of 54 members. These members will choose a president a speaker and deputy-speaker. It remains to be seen if this becomes much more than another version of the transitional government wholly dependent upon external funding and rife with corruption. For more see this article.

Somalia: U.S. surveillance drone crashes in refugee camp

Eye witnesses in Badbado camp in Mogadishu report that a drone crashed into a hut located in the camp. African Union troops removed the wreckage. Apparently no one was hurt by the crash.

The U.S. has been using drones both for surveillance of militants and also for attacks on suspected militants in Somalia for some time. Last year a similar plane crashed into a house in Mogadishu.

Obama has been escalating the use of drones in Somalia, Yemen, and in the Pakistani tribal areas as part of operations against militants. The U.S. plans to build more bases for the drones in Africa and elsewhere.

Although some analysts claim their use may be against international law the administration claims that attack drones kill many militant leaders. Critics point out that they often kill civilians as collateral damage.

Thousands flee fighting in Mogadishu.

This is from middle east on-line. The Ethiopians are proxies for US troops. Since the overthrow of the Islamist government, a government the US could not tolerate, there has been no stability. The UN recognised government has never really ruled the country and depends upon the Ethiopians for most of the power they have.

Thousands flee fighting in Somali capital


Death toll from fighting in Mogadishu climbs to 59 as locals slam Ethiopians shooting civilians.


MOGADISHU - The toll from some of the worst fighting in Somalia's war-wracked capital climbed to 59 on Saturday, as thousands fled the city fearing more clashes between Ethiopian forces and rebels, witnesses said.


Sixteen bodies, including one of an Ethiopian soldier, were recovered on Saturday in and around Mogadishu's Black Sea district, where rival sides pounded each other with artillery fire since Thursday, witnesses said.


According to figures compiled by AFP, fighting in the city since Thursday has claimed 59 lives.


"It was a very gruesome scene. They indiscriminately shot innocent civilians who were fleeing the fighting," said local elder Ali Muse Mohamed, referring to the Ethiopian soldiers.


Residents recovered bullet-riven bodies, ripped limps and shattered skulls on the blood-streaked streets and in bombed-out houses. They said women and children were also targetted by the Ethiopian troops battling rebels.


"They shot any moving creature around the neighbourhood ... They also killed children," lamented Hassan Sugule, another elder.


"The Ethiopians are killing even the women let alone the men, so we have no option of staying. We are looking for safety," said Ali Mohamed Barqad, adding that his neighbourhood was deserted.


A tense calm prevailed in the battered city Saturday, but rival sides dug into their positions girding up for fresh combat.


Meanwhile, thousands of residents fled Mogadishu, many on foot and others aboard trucks and on donkey, heading for the calmer outskirts already choked by hundreds of thousands who left their homes earlier, witnesses said.


Two weeks of clashes in Mogadishu had already displaced at least 90,000, according to the United Nations, worsening the humanitarian crisis that has blighted the nation for 16 years.


The Ethiopian army came to the rescue of the feeble transitional government last year to help it oust the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) that had controlled large parts of the country.


The ICU was defeated earlier this year, but its remnants and allied militants have since waged a guerrilla war aiming to destroy all pro-government targets.


Meanwhile panic reigned supreme in the city.


"We are unable to flee to far areas because we do not have enough money," said Nur Adan Mohamed, loading stuff onto a cart.


"Some of my family members are still trapped in Suqaholaha," said Muhubo Shilis, a mother of five who could only manage to escape with three of her children from her neighbourhood.


"We ask God to have mercy on us because nobody cares about our predicament," she added.


Another fleeing resident Hindiya Sugow Nur said she only left three goats in her house, saying: "I don't want to see my family members killed," she added.


Intense fighting erupted Thursday, killing several people and frenzied civilians dragged the body of an Ethiopian soldier on the streets, in a scene reminiscent of 1993, when the bodies of US special forces taking part in a doomed operation were torn to pieces and displayed in the streets.


An attempt by Ethiopian troops to recover the body, worsened clashes that continued into Friday, leaving a trail of fatalities and destruction of property.


The Ethiopian army crackdown in Mogadishu has blown the lid off decades of complex ethnic, social and political hatred between the two nations which have fought two wars in the past decades.


The New York-based Human Rights Watch meanwhile accused both sides of sweeping violations.


The world "should condemn these attacks and hold combatants accountable for violations of humanitarian law, including mutilating captured combatants and executing detainees," said Peter Takirambudde, the group's director for Africa.


In his quarterly report on Somalia, released Thursday, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said deploying UN troops was not a "realistic and viable option".

UK think tank blasts Ethiopia, US, over Somalia

Reports today indicate that the provisional govt. is proclaiming victory in Mogadishu and urges people to return. We will see. This may be a lull before another storm. I wonder how many African peacekeepers can be recruited to serve in Somalia! Ethiopia seems to be carrying the fight against the insurgents. This will hardly sit well with Somalis.


British think-tank blasts Ethiopia, US over Somalia Wed Apr 25, 3:10 PM ET



LONDON (AFP) - US and Ethiopian military intervention in Somalia has hampered international efforts to bring peace to the war-torn country, an independent British report said Wednesday.



"Genuine multilateral concern to support the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Somalia has been hijacked by unilateral actions of other international actors -- especially Ethiopia and the United States -- following their own foreign policy agendas," the report from the Chatham House foreign affairs think-tank said.

The installation of a new Somali government in early 2007 with Ethiopian backing and US support to counter a rise in Islamism, plus the arrival of African Union peacekeepers, was "highly provocative", it said.

Eight days of ongoing violence between Ethiopian forces and Islamist guerillas in the Somali capital Mogadishu has claimed at least 329 lives, according to a tally from a human rights group.

Similar battles at the end of last month claimed at least 1,000 lives and thousands of civilians have now been displaced.

Chatham House researchers Cedric Barnes and Harun Hassan said support for the brief Islamic Courts regime that came to power in Mogadishu in 2006 is likely to re-emerge.

"This experience (the unrest) dramatically underlines the benefits of the brief period of 'Islamist' authority in southern Somalia which already begins to seem like a 'Golden Age'," they said.

Barnes, from London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), and Hassan, from the Somali Media Centre, said people do not trust the government and it does not represent the powerful interest groups in Mogadishu.

"Whatever the short-term future holds, the complex social forces behind the rise of the Islamic Courts will not go away," they said.

"Indeed, while warlords and secular governments have come and gone, the Islamic Courts have enjoyed relatively consistent support for over a decade.

"They have tended to garner support when the populace are fed up with insecurity and ineffectual and corrupt politicians.

"For these reasons alone, as well as the likely long-term failure of the Transitional Federal Government's reliance on foreign protection and unwillingness to reconcile with armed opponents, the forces behind the Islamic Courts -- in one form or another -- are likely to rise again."

Causes of Somalia "Chaos"

I was led to this article by a libertarian blog that seemed to favor the stateless situation in Somalia or at least the blog argued that the international community wanted a state so that there could be taxation and hence payment of Somalia's long oustanding loans. Well that could very well be but I think that it is more likely that the US and others want a secure state so that they can put down Islamists and make Somalia secure for foreign investment in oil etc. The article shows that many of the business people actually favored the Islamist govt. Obviously it was Ethiopia that attacked Somalia not vice versa--or rather invaded by invitation of the provisional govt.
Mainstream commentators haven't a clue about the term "anarchy". They just use it as a general boo word. Anarchism has a long and venerable history as a political and social theory.

New York Times

April 25, 2007
Profiteers in Somalia Are Quick to Fuel Anarchy
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
GALKAYO, Somalia — Beyond clan rivalry and Islamic fervor, an entirely different motive is helping fuel the chaos in Somalia: profit.

A whole class of opportunists — from squatter landlords to teenage gunmen for hire to vendors of out-of-date baby formula — have been feeding off the anarchy in Somalia for so long that they refuse to let go.

They do not pay taxes, their businesses are totally unregulated and they have skills that are not necessarily geared toward a peaceful society.

In the past few weeks, some Western security officials say, these profiteers have been teaming up with clan fighters and radical Islamists to bring down Somalia’s transitional government, which is the country’s 14th attempt at organizing a central authority and ending the free-for-all of the past 16 years.

They are attacking government troops, smuggling in arms and using their business savvy to raise money for the insurgency. And they are surprisingly open about it.

Omar Hussein Ahmed, an olive oil exporter in Mogadishu, the capital, said he and a group of fellow traders recently bought some missiles to shoot at government soldiers.

“Taxes are annoying,” he explained.

Maxamuud Nuur Muradeeste, a squatter landlord who makes a few hundred dollars a year renting out rooms in the former Ministry of Minerals and Water, said he recently invited insurgents to stash weapons on “his” property. He will do whatever it takes, he said, to thwart the government’s plan to reclaim thousands of pieces of public property.

“If this government survives, how will I?” Mr. Muradeeste said.

Layer this problem on top of Somalia’s sticky clan issues, its poverty and its nomadic culture, and it is no wonder that the transitional government seems to be overwhelmed by the same raw antigovernment defiance that has torpedoed earlier attempts at stabilizing the country.

Granted, many of the transitional leaders acknowledge that they have made mistakes and that they have not played the clan politics as deftly as they could have. But they believe that there are some Somalis — actually, many Somalis — who will never go along with any program.

“Even if we turned Mogadishu into Houston, there would still be people resisting us,” said Abdirizak Adam Hassan, chief of staff for Somalia’s transitional president, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed. “I’m talking about the guys bringing in expired medicine, selling arms, harboring terrorists. They don’t have a clan name. They’re a congregation of people whose best interests are served by no government.”

In the past month, the resistance has intensified and more than 1,000 people have been killed or wounded as the country has sunk into its deepest crisis since the famine days of the early 1990s.

Most of the victims are civilians, like Amina Abdullahi, who recently fled Mogadishu with two small children holding her hands and a baby tied to her back.

“I don’t understand why this is such a problem,” she said. “If people don’t like this government, can’t they wait until there is an election and vote them out?”

American diplomats have mostly shied away from Somalia since the infamous “Black Hawk Down” episode in 1993 when Somali militiamen shot down two American helicopters and killed 18 United States soldiers. But now the Americans are involved again, driven by a counterterrorism agenda and armed with a pledge of $100 million to rebuild the country.

And it is exactly this kind of hefty support that is fueling the resistance’s urgency, because the opportunists sense that this transitional government, more than any other, poses the biggest threat yet to the gravy days of anarchy.

Somalis are legendary individualists, and when the central government imploded in 1991, people quickly devised ways to fend for themselves.

Businessmen opened their own hospitals, schools, telephone companies and even privatized mail services. Men who were able to muster private armies, often former military officers, seized the biggest prizes: abandoned government property, like ports and airfields, which could generate as much as $40,000 a day. They became the warlords. Many trafficked in guns and drugs and taxed their fellow Somalis.

Beneath the warlords were clan-based networks of thousands of people — adolescent enforcers, stevedores, clerks, truck drivers and their families — all tied into the chaos economy. Ditto for the freelance landlords and duty-free importers.

Over the years, prominent members of the Hawiye clan, Mogadishu’s biggest, have tried to cobble together a government and end this system. But they have failed every time. Though Somalia is notoriously fragmented between dozens of rival clans and subclans, and has been that way for centuries, clans alone did not seem to be the problem.

“It was the opportunists who didn’t see a role for themselves in the future,” said Mohammed Abdi Balle, an elder here in Galkayo, a city about 450 miles north of Mogadishu.

Not all opportunists had the same agenda. Many in the business community became fed up with paying protection fees to the warlords and their countless middle-men.

Business leaders then backed a grass-roots Islamist movement that drove the warlords out of Mogadishu last summer and brought peace to the city for the first time in 15 years.

The Islamists seemed to be the perfect solution for the businessmen. They delivered stability, which was good for most business, but they did not confiscate property or levy heavy taxes. They called themselves an administration, not a government.

“Our best days were under them,” said Abdi Ali Jama, who owns an electrical supply shop in Mogadishu.

But then a radical wing took over, and the Islamists declared war on Ethiopia, which commands one of the mightiest armies in Africa. The Ethiopians, with covert American help, crushed the Islamist army in December and bolstered the authority of Somalia’s transitional government in the capital.

Many residents initially welcomed the transitional government. But then it made some questionable calls that cut across clan and business lines. It abruptly closed ports and took over airfields belonging to Hawiye businessmen, denying them revenue they had been accustomed to receiving for years. Many Somalis began to worry that the transitional government, which includes elders from all of Somalia’s clans, was being pushed around by the Darod, the clan of the transitional president and a historic rival to the Hawiye.

At first, just a few Hawiye sub-clans — mainly those connected to the Islamists — took up arms. But as the government has moved to curtail the profiteering, business leaders say that more and more clans are embracing the rebel cause.

For many Abgal, an influential subclan of the Hawiye, the last straw came in mid-March when the government raised port taxes by 300 percent. Mr. Ahmed, the olive oil exporter and an Abgal, said that after that, there was a mass Abgal defection to the insurgency.

“The government is trying to destroy business as we know it,” he said.

Despite attempts at a cease-fire between insurgents and government forces, the violence has raged virtually unabated in Mogadishu.

And once again, the opportunists have stepped in. In some areas, displaced people are forced to pay a “shade tax” to local residents for resting under their trees.

Mohammed Ibrahim and Yuusuf Maxamuud contributed reporting from Mogadishu, Somalia.


Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

More fighting in Mogadishu

The overthrow of the Islamic government has plunged the capital back into anarchy. The Ethiopians are now facing a possible new conflict with Eritrea. No doubt the Ethiopians are confident that they will win out since they have the support of the US in arming and training their troops.

Fifth day of fighting in Somali capital
Insurgents battle Ethiopian troops backing government

Salad Duhul
Associated Press


Sunday, April 22, 2007


MOGADISHU, Somalia — Insurgents and Ethiopian troops backing Somali government forces fought gunbattles on Sunday during a fifth day of fighting in the Somali capital that was less intense than the previous two days.

A government official, however, warned on Sunday that it planned a major offensive against the insurgents soon and wanted Mogadishu residents to move from insurgent strongholds.

Two main hospitals said they admitted 26 civilians wounded during Sunday’s fighting. The casualties by midmorning contrasted sharply with the toll from the previous day, when the Elman Human Rights Organization and hospital officials said heavy fighting in northern and southern Mogadishu killed at least 52 people and wounded 120.

Sunday’s fighting was mainly in the southern Mogadishu neighbourhood of Tawfiq, with Somali government forces capturing Tawfiq Hotel that has been owned by a businessman sympathetic to the insurgents, said Deputy Defense Minister Salad Ali Jelle.

“People in Mogadishu should vacate their homes which are located near the strongholds of terrorists and we will crack down on insurgents and terrorists very soon,” Jelle told The Associated Press on the phone.

Saturday’s violence was the worst in recent years, said Sudan Ali Ahmed, the chairman of the Elman Human Rights Organization.

“I call on the both sides to stop the fighting and shelling without any condition,” to save civilian lives, he told the AP by telephone.

In a separate development that could increase tension in the Horn of Africa, Eritrea suspended its membership of a regional body that mediated the Somali conflict.

The region is already tense because of the unresolved border dispute between Eritrea and Ethiopia that has seen the two countries go to war in the past. In recent months, the Somalia conflict has also been seen as a proxy war between the two, with each backing rival sides.

Eritrea suspended its membership of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development because of “a number of repeated and irresponsible resolutions” the organization has passed “that undermine regional peace and security,” the Eritrean Foreign Ministry said in a statement late Saturday.

“As such, the Eritrean government deemed it fit not to be party to developments that hold one accountable both legally and morally,” said the statement.

It did not make any direct reference to Somalia. But in recent years, the seven-nation Intergovernmental Authority on Development has spent most of its time trying to resolve conflicts such as Somalia, rather than focus on economic development for which it was set up.

U.S. officials have named Eritrea as a supporter the months-old insurgency in Mogadishu, something Eritrea has denied.

Somalia has not had an effective national government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on one another, throwing the country into anarchy.

The transitional government was formed in 2004 with UN help, but has struggled to extend its control over the country.

Ethiopian troops to go on offensive in Somalia?

If this is true it is bound to sabotage the ceasefire and return the city to chaos. The rebels are not likely to give up even though they may take time to regroup.


Ethiopian troops to start major offensive in Somalia
Ethio-Zagol
Ethiopian and Somalia government soldiers are preparing to start a major military offensive against insurgents in Mogadisu, a source at the Somalia Embassy in Ethiopia said.
The source who requested anonymity because of the risks of leaking the information told Ethio-Zagol Post that the forces are at the final stage of their preparation. Mogadishu has remained relatively calm in the last week after the capital’s dominant clan, the Hawiye, had brokered a cease-fire about 10 days ago to end a calamitous fighting.
“The Ethiopian forces have gathered intelligence on the whereabouts of the leaders of the insurgents and they feel the time is ripe for major offensive to end the insurgency, “the source said. The Ethiopians will be helped by Somalia government soldiers.
Ethiopia has been stung by war crimes claims. On April 2, EU Commissions senior adviser on security for Somalia sent send a letter to Eric van der Linden, the commission’s head of delegation in Kenya, alerting him about the "significance of the events of the past four days in Mogadishu in terms of the international law on conflict". Hawiye clan elders said that more than 1000 people were killed and 4000 wounded during the heavy clashes in capital.
The new offensive will, however, commence despite the accusation. “The Ethiopian government is nervous about EU allegations; but I don’t see any evidence that it will stop them from another attack,” the embassy source claimed.
posted by

Mogadishu casualties high

With artillery use in urban areas it is not surprising there are large numbers of civilian casualties. The African Union "peacekeepers" had better find a secluded area and establish a green zone for themselves. The proxy war by Ethiopia to rescue the "legitimate" UN supported government is another disaster supported by US taxpayers. But if you manufacture weapons and military supplies I imagine there must be a bright side!

Mogadishu clashes 'killed 1,000'

Many of those killed and injured were civilians
More than 1,000 people have been killed in recent clashes in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, according to elders from the city's main clan.
Hawiye clan spokesman Hussein Aden Korgab also said more than 4,000 had been injured in some of the heaviest fighting in 15 years.

The clashes came as the government and Ethiopian soldiers battled insurgents - both Islamists and Hawiye fighters.

Meanwhile, Eritrea has confirmed that a Somali Islamist leader is there.

The Union of Islamic Courts was driven out of Mogadishu in December by an alliance of Somalia's transitional government and Ethiopia.

Eritrea, Ethiopia's regional rival, has always denied backing the Islamists but has now admitted that Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed has held talks with President Isaias Afewerki in Asmara.

"We are not all prepared to allow invaders to trample upon our sacred rights and bring us under submission," he said, according to a statement on the website of Eritrea's information ministry.

Somalia has not had an effective national government for 16 years.

War crimes probe

BBC Somali service editor Yusuf Garaad says the figure of more than 1,000 dead does not come as a surprise as heavy artillery were used in residential areas during the fighting.

Most of the clashes took place near the main stadium in Mogadishu and al-Kamin neighbourhood in the south of the capital, according to human rights groups.


African Union troops are supposed to replace the Ethiopians
"We assessed battle fields, spoke to civilians, visited hospital and areas that were affected by the clashes," Mr Korgab told the AFP news agency, explaining how the clan elders reached a figure for the number of casualties.

The United Nations refugee agency says some 124,000 people have fled the city.

Last week, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer while on a visit in Somalia accused Eritrea of destabilising Somalia, by backing the insurgents.

Ms Frazer who met the president and prime minister in Baidoa, called for a permanent ceasefire to be established through dialogue between the interim government and affected communities.

The European Union representative in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, Eric van der Linden, has called for investigations to establish if the Ethiopian and Somali forces committed war crimes during the fighting.

Hawiye clan elders and commanders from Ethiopian forces are expected to hold further talks on Tuesday about their implementing the ceasefire they agreed last week.

But fears are high that fighting could be imminent following reports that both sides have been digging trenches in parts of the city they control.

African Union (AU) troops are supposed to be replacing the Ethiopian soldiers but so far only 1,200 Ugandans have arrived, of the planned 8,000-strong force.

Fighting rages in Mogadishu

This is hardly surprising. As long as the US is involved only through its proxies the Ethiopians it will be on the back pages of newspapers. There is no mention of African peacekeepers in this post. The government and Ethiopians and also the rebels I guess seem to have no compunction about using artillery in the city. The fighting will create another huge refugee problem.


Fighting in Mogadishu rages for 3rd day
By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN - Associated Press Writer

MOGADISHU, Somalia --Fighting raged for a third day in the Somali capital Saturday as government troops and their Ethiopian allies continued a major offensive to quash a growing insurgency by Islamic militants.

Artillery fire and mortar shells rained down on the capital, sending residents fleeing some of the heaviest fighting in Mogadishu since the early 1990s.

On Friday, insurgents shot an Ethiopian helicopter gunship out of the sky and mortar shells slammed into a hospital, leaving corpses piled in the streets and wounding hundreds of civilians.

According to an official count, 30 people have been killed since the offensive started Thursday. But the fighting was so severe and widespread in Mogadishu that bodies were not being picked up or even tallied, and residents said hundreds more were believed dead across the city of 1 million people.

The insurgents are linked to the Council of Islamic Courts, which was driven from power in December by Somali and Ethiopian soldiers, accompanied by U.S. special forces.

Insurgents were firing mortars from residential areas of the city, and Ethiopian troops responded with barrages of heavy artillery. The attacks occurred across the flat seaside capital, and huge plumes of smoke rose into the air.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said dozens of people have been killed since Thursday and more than 220 wounded, most of them civilians with bullet, grenade and other shrapnel wounds.

"The population of Mogadishu is caught up in the worst fighting in more than 15 years," the agency said.

The U.N.'s refugee agency said 58,000 people have fled violence in the Somali capital since the beginning of February.

Islamic militants - who now dominate the insurgency - stockpiled thousands of tons of weapons and ammunition during the six months they controlled Mogadishu. The insurgency will likely last until that stockpile is depleted, or key leaders are killed.

The militants have long rejected any secular government and have sworn to fight until Somalia becomes an Islamic emirate. Clan elders have tried to negotiate several cease-fires, but cannot control the young insurgents.

On Friday, an Associated Press reporter saw an anti-aircraft missile hit an Ethiopian helicopter that had been bombing insurgent positions.

Somalia has been mired in chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on one another.

A U.N. peacekeeping operation in the 1990s saw clashes between foreign troops and Somali fighters, including the notorious downings of two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters in 1993 - which was followed by a firefight that killed some 300 Somalis in 12 hours. The U.S. withdrew from Somalia in 1994, and that was followed a year later by the departure of U.N. peacekeepers.

A national government was established in 2004 but has failed to assert any real control. The administration, with crucial support from Ethiopian troops, toppled the Council of Islamic Courts in December, but insurgents with links to the group have staged attacks nearly every day.

The United States has accused the Islamic courts of having ties to al-Qaida.

AP writer Salad Duhul in Mogadishu contributed to this report.