Keesing's World News Archives » Breaking History  »  Africa  »  Somalia crisis (pub. Feb. 2, 2007)

Searching more than 75 years of world history

US government officials confirmed on Jan. 24, 2007, that a US air force AC-130 gunship had launched an aerial attack against "suspected Islamist terrorists" based in Somalia, but provided few details about the outcome of the strike.  The attack appeared similar in style to a US aerial strike on Jan. 8 against "three suspected al-Qaida operatives" in southern Somalia, which had reportedly killed at least 20 people, although it was unclear whether the intended targets of the attack were amongst the dead.

Immediate Context

The US attacks followed a successful operation in December 2006 by Somali and Ethiopian troops to recapture a large swathe of Somalia, including Mogadishu (the capital), from militiamen of the Union of the Islamic court (UIC, the Islamist Alliance).  The Ethiopian government had stationed its forces on the Somalia-Ethiopian border in November, warning that it would "intervene" if the UIC moved against the Somali government.  The recapture of Mogadishu allowed Ali Mohammed Gedi, the Prime Minister of the transitional Somali government, to enter the capital on Dec. 29 for the first time since he was appointed to the post in November 2004.  The interim government had been based in the south-eastern town of Baidoa since February 2006 because it was too weak to enter Mogadishu, which was taken by the UIC in June 2006 when it declared victory over the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT), a secular coalition of traditional warlords and businessmen, in a battle for control of the capital.  Somalia had been without a central government since 1991, when Mohammed Siyad Barre was ousted as President by faction leaders who then turned their guns on each other, leading to a protracted period of internal conflict.  Under the terms of a peace agreement signed in Nairobi (the Kenyan capital) in January 2004, Somalia's four major clans selected 61 members to a new transitional legislature, while one coalition of smaller clans selected the remaining 31 members.  In October 2004, the transitional legislature elected Col Ahmed Abdullahi Yusuf as President, who in turn appointed Gedi as Prime Minister.

Reaction and outlook

US government official Bryan Whitman told reporters that the USA would "go after" al-Qaida and pursue its "global war on terror, wherever it takes us", whilst US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that al-Qaida "elements" posed "a threat" not only to the USA, but also to the "stability of Somalia".  Most analysts agreed that peace in Somalia depended on the urgent deployment of an African Union (AU)-led peacekeeping force, to replace the withdrawing Ethiopian troops, and the holding of successful reconciliation talks between Yusuf and the clans which opposed him.  Yusuf’s decision to impose martial law on Jan. 13 and to close temporarily several independent media organisations on Jan. 15 were widely regarded as barriers to a peaceful settlement.

Historical context

Somalia, which gained independence in July 1960 following the unification of the former UK protectorate of Somaliland  and the former Italian-administered UN trust territory of Somalia, is a significant country in the Horn of Africa, a region deemed crucial by the US government in its global "war on terror".  In 2002, US-led forces stationed the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa in Djibouti, a country which bordered Somalia, in an apparent attempt to combat the threat of international terrorism in the region.  The first major US military operation in Somalia occurred in December 1992, under the auspices of a UN-sanctioned intervention ("Operation Restore Hope" ), when former US President George H Bush deployed some 28,000 troops to the country, which was at the time suffering from severe famine and a state of lawlessness .   In May 1993, during the administration of former US President Bill Clinton, the US-led multinational Unified Task Force (UNITAF) formally handed over control of the military and humanitarian operation to the UN Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM-II), which included a smaller contingent of US troops.  In October 1993, a US helicopter pilot was captured in Mogadishu by Islamic militiamen during a ferocious gun battle with US special forces, in which at least 300 Somalis and 18 US soldiers were killed.  Clinton withdrew the last substantial unit of US forces from Somalia in March 1994.  Somali-US relations were strained further when Somali citizens were implicated in co-ordinated bomb attacks in August 1998 against the US embassies in Nairobi (Kenya) and Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), during which at least 253 people, including 12 US citizens, were killed and more than 4,000 others injured.  In the aftermath of the suicide attacks in the USA in September 2001, the Somali government appointed a National Anti-Terrorism Task Force "to investigate if there are any terrorists in Somalia".  It was alleged in November 2003 that Somalia had also played a "pivotal role" in a suicide bomb attack in November 2002 on an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, in which 16 people died.

---

Timeline links:

• February 2007 The UN Security Council authorises member states of the African Union (AU) to establish a mission in Somalia (AMISOM) to replace the Ethiopian army.
• January 2007 The Union of the Islamic Courts (UIC, the Islamist Alliance) abandon defences at Kismayu; Ethiopia announces that its troops will withdraw from Somalia within two weeks; Western and African diplomats meet in Nairobi to discuss sending regional peacekeepers and more aid to Somalia; President Ahmed Abdullahi Yusuf enters Mogadishu; US aircraft launch aerial attacks against "suspected Islamist terrorists" in Somalia.
• December 2006 The UN Security Council endorses African peacekeepers; fighting breaks out between the UIC, on the one hand, and Ethiopian and Somali government troops, on the other; Ethiopian and Somali government forces recapture Mogadishu; Somali Prime Minister Gedi enters Mogadishu.
• November 2006 Peace talks in Sudan between Somalia’s Ethiopian-backed transitional government and the UIC collapse;  Ethiopia warns that its troops will intervene if the UIC moves against the transitional Somali government.
• October 2006 The UIC recaptures the strategic hilltop town of Buur Hakaba and declares "holy war" against Ethiopia.  
• September 2006 UIC fighters capture the southern port of Kismayo, Somalia's third largest city and one of the last remaining commercial ports beyond its control; President Yusuf survives an assassination attempt when a car bomb exploded close to his convoy in the south-eastern city of Baidoa.
• June 2006 The UIC declares victory over the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT), the secular coalition of traditional warlords and businessmen, in the battle for control of Mogadishu.  
• May 2006 The UN Security Council adopts Resolution 1676 (2006) calling upon UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to re-establish a panel of experts for a period of six months to investigate violations of the 1992 arms embargo against Somalia.    
• April 2006 The US navy is granted permission to patrol Somalia's coastal waters in an effort to combat piracy and the USA agrees to help Somalia's transitional government set up a coast guard to secure the country's 1,000 km coastline.  
• March 2006 Heavy fighting in the northern and north-eastern outskirts of Mogadishu between the UIC and the ARPCT leads to the deaths of at least 93 people.    
• February 2006 The transitional legislature selected in Kenya in August 2004 meets for the first time in Somalia, when over 200 of its 275 members attend a short meeting in Baidoa, before the session is adjourned for a week.    
• November 2005 Prime Minister Ali Muhammed Gedi survives an assassination attempt in Mogadishu; The Independent reports that al-Qaida operatives, jihadi extremists, Ethiopian security services and Western-backed counter-terrorism agents are "engaged in a shadowy and complex contest of intimidation, abduction and assassination" in the capital.   
• June 2005 Prime Minister Gedi and his supporters within the transitional legislature and Cabinet move out of Kenya and establish a base in the Somalian town of Jowhar, some 90 km north of Mogadishu.   
• March 2005 The UN Security Council adopts Resolution 1587 (2005), calling upon UN Secretary-General Annan to re-establish a panel of experts for a period of six months to investigate violations of the 1992 arms embargo against Somalia.    
• December 2004 Prime Minister Gedi appoints a new Cabinet.    
• November 2004 President Yusuf appoints Gedi as the new Prime Minister.    
• October 2004 Col Ahmed Abdullahi Yusuf is elected as the new President.    
• August 2004 Members of the Somali transitional legislature are sworn in at ceremonies held in the UN headquarters in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.   
• January 2004 The leaders of Somalia's warring factions sign a peace agreement in Nairobi, bringing them the closest to forming a central administration since the Somali state had effectively dissolved at the outbreak of civil war in 1991.    
• November 2003 It is alleged that Somalia played a "pivotal role" in the suicide bomb attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, in November 2002 in which 16 people died.    
• September 2002 It is reported that US Special Forces are stationed in Djibouti in preparation for possible military action against al-Qaida suspects in the Horn of Africa.    
• December 2001 Speculation mounts that the USA is planning to carry out military action against Somalia as part of its ongoing campaign against the al-Qaida network.    
• October 2001 The Somali government appoints a National Anti-Terrorism Task Force following the Sept. 11 attacks on the USA "to investigate if there are any terrorists in Somalia".   
• September 2001 A series of suicide attacks are launched against the USA in Washington DC and New York.  
• August 1998 Co-ordinated bomb attacks are carried out on the US embassies in Nairobi (Kenya) and Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) killing over 260 people.   
• March 1994 The last substantial unit of US soldiers leaves Somalia.    
• October 1993 US helicopter pilot Michael Durant is captured and then released by Islamists after a ferocious gun battle in Mogadishu, in which some 300 Somalis and 18 US soldiers are killed.    
• May 1993 The US-led multinational Unified Task Force (UNITAF) formally hands over control of the military and humanitarian operation to the UN Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM-II) under the command of Gen. Cevik Bir of Turkey.   
• December 1992 In an operation codenamed "Restore Hope", US President George H Bush deploys 28,000 US troops into Somalia in a UN-sanctioned operation to ensure safe delivery of international aid to the starving.  
• January 1992 A visit to Mogadishu by UN Assistant Secretary-General James O. C. Jonah fails to end fighting underway in the city between the Abgal clan supporters of interim President Ali Mahdi Mohammed and the Habar Gadir supporters of Gen. Mohammed Farah Aydid.    
• May 1991 The secession of the north-east part of Somalia to form an independent state--the Somaliland Republic--is confirmed by the president of the Somali National Movement (SNM), Abdel-Rahman Ahmed Ali.    
• January 1991 President Mohammed Siyad Barre flees the country after being overthrown when opposition forces capture Mogadishu.    
• April 1988 Somalia and Ethiopia sign a peace agreement, ending hostilities between the two countries.    
• June 1977 The Western Somalia Liberation Front (WSLF), supported by the government of the Somali Democratic Republic, invades Ethiopia.    
• May 1970 General Siyad Barreh announces the nationalisation of some foreign-owned banks and oil companies.   
• October 1969 President Abdelrashid All Shermarke is assassinated.  Army commanders seize power and appoint General Mohammed Siyad Barreh as chairman of a 25-member Revolutionary Council.   
• September 1968 Ethiopia and Somalia resume diplomatic relations and conclude a trade agreement.    
• June 1967 In a secret vote, the National Assembly elects Abdelrashid Ali Shermarke to replace President Aden Abdullah Osman.  
• January 1964 A protracted border dispute with Ethiopia leads to a series of military clashes.
• July 1960 The independent Republic of Somali is formed by the unification of the UK protectorate of Somaliland and the Italian administered UN Trust territory of Somalia; Aden Abdullah Osman is elected President of the newly formed Republic of Somali.    
• April 1960 An agreement on the unification of the UK protectorate of Somaliland and the UN Trust Territory of Somalia is reached at meetings in Mogadishu.    
• March 1959 Elections to a newly formed Legislative Assembly are held ahead of independence.      
• January 1950 The UK agrees to return control of Somalia (Italian Somaliland) to Italy under a ten-year trusteeship overseen by the UN.    
• October 1948 The Ethiopian province of Ogaden, which since 1941 had been administered under the Anglo-Ethiopian treaty by the UK authorities in Somalia, is formally handed back to Ethiopia.    
• May 1941 British forces seize control of Somalia from Italy during World War II.