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Since the start of the new cycle of war in Somalia in 2007 following the Ethiopian occupation, around 18,000 civilians have been killed and more than a million reduced to the status of refugees. Three million Somalis subsist on emergency food handouts from international agencies.
Islamist resistance fighters had taken up arms after the Ethiopian invasion. Their successful fight had forced the United States-backed Ethiopian troops to retreat in many places.
The international community backed by the African Union (A.U.) had, in a last-ditch attempt to bring stability to the war-torn country, propped up a government headed by Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, a former leader of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), which had spearheaded the struggle against the Ethiopian forces and their local warlord allies. Sheikh Sharif now heads a government that includes warlords and politicians supported by the U.S. and its closest ally in the region, Ethiopia.
The arrangement put in place after the withdrawal of the Ethiopian troops in early 2009 was never accepted by the more militant Islamist groups. The main Islamist fighting force today is Al Shabaab, which the West accuses of having links with Al Qaeda. Another umbrella group, the Hizbul Islam, has also been actively involved in the recent fighting in Mogadishu...more..http://allafrica.com/stories/200906100969.html
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