Yusuf Ahmed Sarinle was a general and, at the time of his death, the top security official of the embattled government of Somalia, functioning as the police chief of Mogadishu during the Somali Civil War. He was murdered in his home by unknown gunmen on January 23, 2005, [1] the possible target of assassination by militia members.
Sarinle was a supporter of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government and also favored bringing African Union peacekeeping troops to the country. [2]
A few days before his murder, an Italian colonial cemetery had been destroyed by militiamen, [3] and Sarinle had been investigating the incident. [4] According to Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram, "Sarinle was strongly opposed to militant Islamists, and many believe that Islamists were behind his cold-blooded murder." [5]
Several other high-ranking Somali police officials were also assassinated at that time, [6] and after Sarinle's death, the Islamists took control of Mogadishu.
Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. The country was an important centre for commerce with the rest of the ancient world, and according to most scholars, it is among the most probable locations of the fabled ancient Land of Punt. During the Middle Ages, several powerful Somali states and port towns dominated the regional trade, the Mogadishu Sultanate and Ajuran Sultanate both centered around the port town Mogadishu, but also the port towns of Barawe and Merca.
Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed was a Somali politician and former colonel in the Somali National Army. He was one of the founders of the Somali Salvation Democratic Front, as well as the Puntland State of Somalia, the latter of which he served as the first president. In 2004, Ahmed also helped establish the Transitional Federal Government, which he led as President of Somalia from 2004 until 2008.
Kismayo is a port city in the southern Lower Juba province of Somalia. It is the commercial capital of the autonomous Jubaland region.
Jowhar is the capital city of Hirshabelle state of Somalia. Jowhar is also the administrative capital of Middle Shabelle region 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 Transitional Federal Government (TFG) was internationally recognized as a provisional government of the Republic of Somalia from 14 October 2004 until 20 August 2012, when its tenure officially ended and the Federal Government of Somalia was inaugurated.
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys (English: Hassan Dahir Aweys (Somali: Xasan Daahir Aweys, is a Somali political figure from the Habargidir/Ayr subclan within the Hawiye clan. During the regime of Siad Barre, Aweys was a colonel in the Somali National Army during the 1977 Ogaden War against Ethiopia. He was decorated for bravery for his part in 1977 the war. At an early stage in the fighting, Sheikh Aweys captured Abdullahi Yusuf and put him in jail. Sheikh Aweys later became a leader of Al-Itihaad al-Islamiya, which was destroyed in the late 1990s by a force led by Abdullahi Yusuf and funded by Ethiopia.
The War in Somalia, also known as the Ethiopian intervention of Somalia or the Ethiopian intervention in the Somali Civil War, was an armed conflict involving largely Ethiopian and Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) forces and Somali troops from Puntland versus the Somali Islamist umbrella group, the Islamic Court Union (ICU), and other affiliated militias for control of Somalia. Ethiopia's actions were due to the ICU gaining control of a majority of southern Somalia in late 2006.
Mohamed Qanyare Afrah (Somali: Maxamed Qanyare Afrax, Arabic: محمد افراح قنياري} was a Somali faction leader and politician who was based south of Mogadishu in the Daynile District. He came in third position in Somalia's first election as a federal country on 10 October 2004 and was subsequently appointed minister of public security in the government of Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Ghedi, He served as minister of security in 2006 but was dismissed after ignoring calls by the Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Ghedi to stop fighting forces of the Islamist Courts. He continued to participate actively in Somali political affairs being reelected to the first post transitional federal parliament of Somalia as a member of parliament, he resigned from his seat representing his clan in the summer of 2013, his seat in the Federal Parliament of Somalia was taken over by his son Cabdiweli Mohamed Qanyare.
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 ."
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 a phase of the Somali Civil War which is concentrated in southern and central Somalia. It began in late January 2009 with the conflict mainly between the forces of the Federal Government of Somalia assisted by African Union peacekeeping troops and al-Qaeda aligned al-Shabaab militants.
The Battle of Mogadishu (2009) started in May with an Islamist offensive, when rebels from al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam attacked and captured government bases in the capital of Mogadishu. The fighting soon spread, causing hundreds of casualties, and continued on at various levels of intensity until October. The battle's name usually includes the year, when referenced, in order to distinguish it amongst the nine major Battles of Mogadishu during the decades long Somali Civil War.
This is a 2011 timeline of events in the Somali Civil War (2009–present).
The Raskamboni Movement was a jihadist Islamic movement led by Sheikh Ahmed Madobe, the current president of the Jubaland state in southern Somalia. After fighting with Al-Shabaab they managed to capture Kismayo with the help of Kenya.
HornAfrik Media Inc, a defunct news organization based in Mogadishu, was subjected to various attacks by militants during the Islamist insurgency (2006-2009) in southern Somalia. Prior to the company's closure in 2010, these incidents included:
The following lists events that happened during 2005 in Somalia.
This article contains a timeline of events for the Somali jihadist group al-Shabaab.
In Mogadishu, General Yusuf Ahmed Sarenle, the commander of the police force of the Transitional National Government (precursor to the current Transitional Federal Government) was shot dead at his house in Harmar Bile section of Wardigley district in Mogadishu early in the morning of 23 January. The killing was the latest in a string of attacks that have targeted senior military and police officials in Mogadishu.,