Somalia

The two most powerful clans in southern Somalia are the Habr Gidir/Hawiye and the Darod (each with its own sub-clans). Habr Gidir elders and sheikhs led the Islamic Courts Union (I...

At the end of the AU summit in Addis Ababa on 30 January, its new Chairman, Ghana's President John Kufuor, announced that four countries had pledged troops: Uganda (1,500); Nigeria...

African Union leaders will meet in Addis Ababa on 22-24 January to discuss sending 8,000 peacekeepers to Somalia. Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said that an AU force will ...

Ethiopia was always confident of an easy victory over the Supreme Islamic Courts Council, despite the SICC's support from international Islamist volunteers and Eritrea. Addis Ababa...

The arrest of three Italian journalists by the Supreme Islamic Courts Council on 2 December in Mogadishu points to growing sensitivity to the SICC's jihadist reputation and to repo...

The draft resolution on Somalia to be put to the United Nations Security Council by the United States this week, proposes the deployment of a regional force to support Somalia's Tr...

Ethiopia and Eritrea are the leading African states breaking the United Nations arms embargo on Somalia, according to an experts' report to the Security Council on 15 November. The...

Sheikh Hassan Abdullah Hamid Turki, leading radical in Somalia's Supreme Islamic Courts Council (SICC) and high on the United States' terrorist list, is reported to have been wound...

The Somali conflict poses a growing threat to neighbouring states. As the SICC and the TFG started their third round of talks in Sudan on 1 November, Ethiopia insisted it would pro...

In Vol 47 No 16, Africa Confidential reported that the BBC Somali Service and its head, Yusuf Garad, had been criticised for supporting the Supreme Islamic Courts Council regime in...