Somalia: The Thorn of Africa

THERE has been a serious escalation in the fighting in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, in recent weeks after the comparative lull earlier in the year. Government forces have been trying since mid-May to dislodge rebel Islamist fighters who have taken control of most of the capital and the countryside,More than 45 people were killed in a single day of fighting in late May, making it one of the bloodiest days the capital has seen this year. Mogadishu, already reduced to a shell of a city after a decade and a half of relentless warfare, is being further depopulated after government troops started their counteroffensive. More than 50,000 people have fled the capital and are trying to find shelter in the already overcrowded refugee camps inside the country and in Kenya.
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