On December 6, 2006 the UN Security Council passed a pair of resolutions involving Somalia:
Resolution 1724, stresses the arms embargo on Somalia and calls all UN member nations to avoid exacerbating the conflict by shipping arms into the region.[1]
Resolution 1725, authorizes "IGAD and Member States of the African Union to establish a protection and training mission in Somalia." This mission was dubbed IGASOM, and for the purposes of their mission, the arms embargo was lifted to allow them to bring weapons into the country.[2][3]
Somali reaction to the resolutions was generally positive for supporters of the TFG,[4] and negative for supporters of the ICU.[5]
IGAD and AU members balked at creating the necessary peacekeeping force. There was ICU resistance to allowing Ethiopian troops be part of the mission, for instance. Uganda, the one nation that initially committed to provide a battalion of troops, later backed away from its pledge when the Islamists threatened to attack any UN peacekeepers that entered the country.[6][7] In its defense, the current crisis does not allow for peacekeepers when there is active hostilities conducted with heavy weapons (see Battle of Baidoa).
On December 26, at 3 pm New York time (2000 GMT), the UN Security Council heard a briefing on the crisis by special envoy for Somalia, Francois Lonseny Fall of Guinea.[8] In the briefing, he said all UN and NGO staff had been evacuated from the area, including the UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination Team. The fighting had put nearly 2 million flood-affected persons at severe risk.[9]
Kofi Annan called Ethiopian and Kenyan leaders to attempt to arrange a halt to the fighting, while the Security Council was briefed on the situation.[10]
On December 27, the UN Security Council remained deadlocked for the second day, with council chair Qatar refusing to budge over the demand for withdrawal of Ethiopian troops from the country.[11]
Intergovernmental Authority on Development
By the authority of UN Security Council 1725, the member states of the Intergovernmental Authority on DevelopmentIGAD and the African Union (AU) are enchartered to conduct a peacekeeping mission to Somalia. Dubbed IGASOM, the mission would seek to put UN-sanctioned peacekeepers in the country for the first time since the 1992-1995 missions (UNOSOM I, UNITAF, and UNOSOM II).
On December 2, 2006, representatives of IGAD and the ICU met and published a cordial and formal communique[12] committing the ICU to the IGAD plans. Subsequently, the ICU has declared its opposition to the mission.
IGASOM never deployed to Somalia. Instead, in early 2007, the mission was expanded to invite willing members of the broader African Union, and dubbed the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM).
By the authority of UN Security Council 1725, the member states of IGAD and the African Union (AU) are enchartered to conduct a peacekeeping mission to Somalia. Originally dubbed IGASOM, the mission would seek to put UN-sanctioned peacekeepers in the country for the first time since the 1992-1995 missions (UNOSOM I, UNITAF, and UNOSOM II). IGASOM never deployed to Somalia. Instead, in early 2007, the mission was expanded to invite willing members of the broader African Union, and dubbed the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM).
On January 6, 2005 the original plans for the AU to put peacekeepers in Somalia was first agreed by the AU Peace and Security Council. Uganda was cited as the first nation to commit troops to the mission. Yet the mission did not materialize as planned. A year later, no AU or IGAD peacekeepers had been deployed.[13]
On December 23, 2006, the AU issued a release signed by AU President Alpha Oumar Konaré calling for a cease fire.[14]
On December 26, 2006, the AU implicitly backed Ethiopia's intervention on behalf of the Somali Transitional Federal Parliament of the Somali Republic. AU spokesman Patrick Mazimhaka was quoted as saying "We do not criticise Ethiopia because Ethiopia has given us ample warning that they are threatened by the Islamic Courts group."[15]
On January 14, 2007, an AU delegation arrived in Mogadishu to discuss the deployment of international peacekeepers.
AMISOM and TFG troops had effectively pushed out al-Shabaab from Mogadishu, the Somali capital, by August 2011.
The U.N. would approve AMISOM efforts in 6 month increments, with the option to renew. Through 2012, troops have been approved to battle the al-Shabaab insurgents. On February 22, 2012, The U.N. also voted to increase the number of authorized troops to 17,700 from 12,000 and to expand the scope of the mission.[16]
Yemen
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh met separately with both TFG and ICU representatives respectively on December 5 and December 6 to see if rapprochement might be possible between the parties. However, for now, both parties said a dialogue was impossible because of increased tensions and fighting.[17][18]
On December 25, the EU Presidency, held by Finland, issued a plea to end the fighting in Somalia.[22] EU Commissioner Louis Michel likewise called for the TFG and ICU to resume talks in Khartoum.[23]
On January 3, 2007, EU leaders met and agreed it was unlikely for them to send any peacekeepers to Somalia, and were also unclear about what financial assistance they might give a peacekeeping mission, but affirmed their interest to continue humanitarian support to the nation.[24]
Arab League
Somalia is an official member of the League of Arab States or Arab League. On December 23, 2006 Samir Hosni, Director of African Affairs for the Arab League called for a halt to the violence. The Arab League seeks to co-sponsor peace talks with the African Union.[25]
On December 24, 2006 in Cairo, Arab League Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs Ahmed bin Hilli made an appeal for a cessation of fighting in an interview with al-Arabiya television of Dubai.[27]
On December 26, an Arab League spokesman said his organization would like all hostilities to stop and warring parties to respect the binding agreements they signed before world community. He said Somalia doesn't need outside intervention and Ethiopia must leave Somalia.[28]
United States
On December 23, 2006, US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice met with Ugandan Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa to urge Uganda to take a leading role in establishing peacekeeping operations in Somalia through IGAD.[29] In 2011, the United States provided approximately $565 million in humanitarian assistance for the horn of Africa.[30]
Humanitarian efforts
United Nations
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
The UN runs various humanitarian efforts in Somalia aimed at redressing issues brought on by the protracted conflict, mainly in the southern part of the country.[31]Eric Laroche was assigned as the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for all local relief efforts.[32]
The UNHCR has a presence throughout Puntland, Somaliland, and southern and central Somalia. Although the UNHCR's coordination program for Somalia is based in Nairobi, Kenya,[31] the UN moved its overall headquarters for the country in 2012 to Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, on account of improved security.[34]
The UNHCR's Deputy High Commissioner, Wendy Chamberlin, spent a great deal of time in 2006 focusing efforts on the Horn of Africa, which had been struck by terrible drought, followed by torrential floods.[35]
On December 26, 2006, UN High Commissioner on Refugees António Guterres made an appeal to end the crisis in the region and warned of large-scale displacements if fighting continued.[36]
Through 2012, the UNHCR expects to sustain delivery of relief supplies to affected persons so as to address the lingering effects of the 2011 Eastern Africa drought.[31]
UNICEF
In 2006, UNICEF provided care to 250,000 out of the 330,000 people affected by floods that hit the southern Shabelle and Juba river valley areas of Somalia.[37] Among other programs, it also operated the Bay Project 1 (BP1) camp in Baidoa near the frontlines for internally displaced persons (IDPs) who lived in the area prior to the resumption of fighting.[38]
World Food Programme
Since November 2011, all food transported by the World Food Programme (WFP) has come by sea. The WFP ships carrying food to Somalia have been accompanied by naval escorts from Operation Atalanta and NATO; since the WFP started using naval escorts, none of the ships have been attacked en route to the ports.[39]
The World Food Programme provided humanitarian relief to hundreds of thousands of persons in Somalia and over a million throughout the Horn of Africa during 2006. By December 2006, they had provided food to 278,000 of 455,000 affected people in the country.[40] On December 24, 2006, a WFP-chartered Antonov-12 dropped 14 tons of food to Afmadow, which had been cut off by flooding.[41] On December 27, 2006, WFP airdrop efforts were suspended and personnel relocated from Kismayo to Nairobi, Kenya, after the government put restrictions on flights. Ground operations continued.[42]
On January 2, 2007 WFP operations, including UN Common Air Services (UNCAS) flights, were resumed. Offices were reopened in Bu'aale and Wajid, and deliveries of food resumed to Afmadow province. A ship docked in Mogadishu on December 26 with 4,500 tons of food, and was finally able to offload its cargo while the port underwent the change of hands from the ICU to a local sub-clan, and finally to the TFG.[43]
In August 2011, the WFP delivered nutritional supplements to the children of Mogadishu. The WFP was limited in where they can deliver to because al-Shabaab had banned them from delivering food to areas that fall under their control.[44]
Puntland Maritime Police Force
The Puntland Maritime Police Force is a locally recruited, professional maritime security force of the autonomous Puntland region. It is primarily aimed at preventing, detecting and eradicating piracy, illegal fishing, and other illicit activity off of the coast of Somalia, in addition to generally safeguarding the nation's marine resources.[45][46]
In addition, the Force provides logistics support to humanitarian efforts, such as repairing wells; delivering relief supplies, medical supplies, food and water; rehabilitating hospitals and clinics; and refurbishing roads, airports and other infrastructure. It also offers skills training programs to local communities.[46][47]
International Committee of the Red Cross
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been operating continuously in Somalia since 1977, when famine and the Ogaden War caused humanitarian crises. In the case of 2006, their mission has been similarly set by alternating periods of severe drought and flooding, and calamities caused by man-made war.
On December 26, 2006 Antonella Notari, spokeswoman for the ICRC, declared over 800 war wounded had been taken in at Somali hospitals since the beginning of Ethiopian air strikes. She said that thousands were leaving the war zone and that it was too early to tell whether this was a temporary displacement.[48]
On December 31, 2006, a plane chartered by the ICRC on its way to Somalia with a load of fuel drums and aid supplies, crashed not long after taking off in Nairobi, Kenya. The crew of three survived.[49]
From June to October 2011, the ICRC, in partnership with the SRCS, was able to open 11 new outpatient feeding programs and 9 mobile health teams. These operations have helped over 27,800 malnourished children.[50]
The local office in Baidoa is at the literal front lines of the civil war.[51][52]
Ahmed Gure of the SRCS was also on hand to witness the Ethiopian air strikes against Beledweyne on December 24, 2006:
An eyewitness told IRIN that aircraft, allegedly Ethiopian, had struck areas near the town of Beletweyne in Southern Somalia this morning. "Two jet airplanes bombarded the town this morning. They came back five times," said Ahmed Gure of the Somali Red Crescent Society (SRCS) in Beletweyne. He said the attack took about an hour. Gure said many of the town's population were only just starting to return from temporary camps after they were displaced by recent flooding, and "can ill-afford to move again, but I am afraid if the situation deteriorates they will move again."[41]
Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders Efforts
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) organized flood relief earlier in 2006, in an effort known as the Galgaduud Project. It focused on nutrition, non-food related deliveries, dealt with war-related suffering, as well as medical care.[53]
On December 23, MSF Director of Operations Bruno Jochum expressed concern if military aircraft—especially US military aircraft—might be used to drop humanitarian aid because it risks misperceptions of connection between aid workers and the military, which might make it unsafe to continue working in Somalia.[54]
On February 16, 2007, a gunman attacked two MSF Spain staff in Baardheere. MSF doctors and staff are in the town working to reopen the largest hospital, which had been closed for the past decade. The workers were uninjured. Local clan leaders pledged their support for the work of MSF in the region.[55]
CARE estimates 1.8 million people were pushed to the brink of starvation in the region due to drought, flood and civil war combined, while it could only provide food to 600,000 persons. Over 1 million lost their homes due to flooding.[57]
Save the Children
Save the Children joined with other humanitarian NGOs to appeal to the warring factions to end the conflict.[56] The organization also provided humanitarian relief during the 2011 Eastern Africa drought.[58]
On December 31, 2006, spokeswoman Kari Øyen of Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), a member of ACT, reported that 10,000 people had been displaced to Garbaharrey by recent fighting. NCA was dispensing blankets and relief supplies.[59]
Baidoa is the largest city of the South West State of Somalia.
The Somali Civil War is an ongoing civil war that is taking place in Somalia. It grew out of resistance to the military junta which was led by Siad Barre during the 1980s. From 1988 to 1990, the Somali Armed Forces began engaging in combat against various armed rebel groups, including the Somali Salvation Democratic Front in the northeast, the Somali National Movement in the northwest, and the United Somali Congress in the south. The clan-based armed opposition groups overthrew the Barre government in 1991.
The Second Battle of Mogadishu was a battle fought for control of Somalia's capital city, Mogadishu. The opposing forces were the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT), and militia loyal to the Islamic Courts Union (ICU). The conflict began in mid-February 2006, when Somali warlords formed the ARPCT to challenge the ICU's emerging influence. The ICU's influence was largely generated by wealthy financial donors who sought to enable the Islamic Courts Union to seize power in the country to bring stability. The battle is referred to as the Second Battle to distinguish it amongst the nine major Battles of Mogadishu during the decades-long Somali Civil War.
The Islamic Courts Union was a legal and political organization formed to address the lawlessness that had gripped Somalia since the fall of the Siad Barre regime in 1991 during the Somali Civil War.
The Ethiopian occupation of Somalia, also called the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia or the Ethiopian intervention in the Somali Civil War, was an armed conflict in Somalia that lasted from 2006 to 2009. It began when military forces from Ethiopia, supported by the United States, invaded Somalia to depose the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) and install the Transitional Federal Government (TFG). The conflict continued after the invasion when an anti-Ethiopian insurgency emerged and rapidly escalated. During 2007 and 2008, the insurgency recaptured the majority of territory lost by the ICU. At the start of 2009 Ethiopian troops withdrew from Somalia, but became re-involved several years later to counter the growing strength of Al-Shabaab.
The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) was a regional peacekeeping mission operated by the African Union with the approval of the United Nations Security Council. It was mandated to support transitional governmental structures, implement a national security plan, train the Somali security forces, and to assist in creating a secure environment for the delivery of humanitarian aid. As part of its duties, AMISOM supported the Federal Government of Somalia's forces in their battle against Al-Shabaab militants.
The 2006 Islamic Courts Union offensive is the period in the Somali Civil War that began in May 2006 with the Islamic Courts Union's (ICU) conquest of Mogadishu from the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT) and continued with further ICU expansion in the country. Following the outbreak of the war on December 21, 2006; by December 24, direct Ethiopian intervention in the conflict in support of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) was no longer denied by the Ethiopian government. The Eritrean government denied any involvement despite Ethiopian claims to the contrary.
The Battle of Baidoa began on 20 December 2006 when the Somali transitional federal government forces (TFG) allied with Ethiopian forces stationed there attacked advancing Islamic Courts Union (ICU) forces along with 500 alleged Eritrean troops and mujahideen arrayed against them.
The Battle of Beledweyne occurred on December 24 to December 25, 2006, when Ethiopian troops seized that Somalian town from Islamic Courts Union fighters, according to some news agencies. Beledweyne is 100 km north of Baidoa, the seat of Transitional Federal Government of Somalia.
The Battle of Bandiradley in Somalia began on December 23, 2006, when Galmudug and Ethiopian forces, along with faction leader Abdi Qeybdid, fought Islamic Courts Union (ICU) militants defending Bandiradley. The fighting pushed the Islamists out of Bandiradley and over the border south into Adado district, Galgadud region, by December 25.
The Battle of Jowhar took place during the 2006 Somali War between the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) and affiliated militias against Ethiopian and Transitional Federal Government (TFG) forces for control of the town of Jowhar. It began on December 27, 2006, when retreating ICU forces regrouped near their stronghold of Jowhar. It became the last major town and strategic stronghold of the ICU to fall to Ethiopian and TFG forces before the latter overtook Mogadishu two days later.
Even before the beginning of the War in Somalia (2006-2009) there were significant assertions and accusations of the use of disinformation and propaganda tactics, classed as forms of information warfare, by various parties to shape the causes and course of the conflict. These include assertions of falsification of the presence or number of forces involved, exaggeration or minimisation of the casualties inflicted or taken, influence or control of media outlets, and other informational means and media to sway popular support and international opinion.
The Juba Valley Alliance is a political faction of the Somali Civil War. It was the primary opponent of the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM) and the Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC) vying for the control of Kismayo and the Juba River valley, the area known as Jubaland.
The transitional federal government (TFG) was the government of Somalia between 2004 and 2012. Established 2004 in Djibouti through various international conferences, it was an attempt to restore national institutions to the country after the 1991 collapse of the Siad Barre government and the ensuing Somali Civil War.
After two decades of violence and civil war and after the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia captured Mogadishu and Kismayo, the TFG attempted to disarm the militias of the country in late 2006. According to the UN/World Bank's Joint Needs Assessment (JNA) coordination secretariat, "the total estimated number of militias [militia members] to be demobilized is 53,000." In 2005, they estimated that "there are 11–15,000 militia people controlling Mogadishu ."
Yusuf Mohammed Siad Indhacade, aka "Inda'ade" was a Somali and former Minister. In 2011 he was a General in the Somali National Army. He hails from the Ayr sub-clan, part of the Habar Gidir, which is a branch of the Hawiye clan. For a short period he was Somali Minister of Defence (Somalia).
The timeline of events in the War in Somalia during 2006 is set out below.
The timeline of events in the War in Somalia during 2007 is set out below.
The 2009 timeline of events in the Somalia War (2006–2009) during January 2009 is set out below. From the beginning of February the timeline of events in the Somali Civil War (2009–present) is set out following the conclusion of the previous phase of the civil war.
The Somali Civil War (2009–present) is the ongoing phase of the Somali Civil War which is concentrated in southern and central Somalia. It began in late January 2009 with the present conflict mainly between the forces of the Federal Government of Somalia assisted by African Union peacekeeping troops and al-Qaeda aligned al-Shabaab militants.
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