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Somali Islamists seize more of capital

27. May 2010

Islamist al-Shebab militiamen have seized several districts of war-battered Mogadishu and shelled the Somali presidential palace in an offensive apparently intended to thwart a long-delayed big push by the U.S.-backed government.

The gains made by the Islamists, who are aligned with al-Qaida, are a severe setback for Somalia’s fragile Transitional Federal Government and for Washington’s hopes of curbing the jihadists in the Horn of Africa.

The TFG was installed in Mogadishu by the military forces of neighboring Ethiopia with U.S. support in December 2006, when the Union of Islamic Courts, an Islamist coalition, was ousted after a short-lived period in power.

The TFG is barely functioning and even before the Islamists’ advance over the last few days only controlled a section of the coastal city around the presidential seat, the airport and the harbor.

Warnings from Djibouti

In New York, Ismail Omar Guelleh, president of Djibouti, a former French colony that is Somalia’s northern neighbor, warned Thursday that the TFG may not survive the escalating conflict with the Islamist insurgents.

“I cannot see how we can avert the possibility of Somalia’s plunge into an avoidable disintegration,” he told the U.N. Security Council.

He called on it to take action to save Mogadishu and its 2 million inhabitants because the TFG is “fast shrinking” under the Islamists’ offensive and has become “irrelevant and inconsequential.”

Al-Shebab forces have been pushing forward across northern parts of Mogadishu for several days. On Friday they took positions about 500 yards from the presidential palace and shelled the compound.

The airport, seaport and other TFG installations were also hit. At one point, the building where members of the country’s parliament were gathered came under insurgent fire.

At least 15 people were killed and 30 wounded in fighting Sunday but the overall casualty toll for the last week is believed to be much higher….

Comments from Al Shabab and the states minister for defence

“We have driven out the government from the north of Mogadishu,” Sheik Ali Mohammed Rage, al-Shebab’s spokesman, declared Monday. “Now our next step is to capture the palace.”

The president, Sheik Ahmed Sharif, wasn’t in the palace when it was shelled. He has been attending a U.N.-sponsored conference in Istanbul aimed at garnering support for his failed state.

He has faced dissent within his government in recent weeks and in his absence the TFG appeared to be splintering amid the jihadist offensive.

The defense minister, Sheik Yusuf Mohamed Siyade Indhaade, accused the prime minister, Omar Abdirshid, of being responsible for the TFG’s failure to stand up to the al-Shebab insurgents.

Indhaade said TFG forces had to fall back from positions in the Bonheere and Maanaboliyo districts of Mogadishu “because the prime minister refused to give them enough arms to fight the militants.”

He claimed earlier that the insurgents were using 4,000 small arms and ammunition that officials at the prime minister’s office had sold to al-Shebab.

“The president is now traveling abroad and the prime minister is working to destroy the government forces,” Indhaade said. “I don’t know why he’s doing this.”

Defections

A few weeks ago, hundreds of troops from the TFG’s poorly trained and poorly led army defected to the insurgents with their weapons because they hadn’t been paid for months.

Their commanders and officials in the corruption-riddled government had presumably pocketed the funds, largely provided by the Americans.

TFG forces have been supported by some of the 4,000 troops of an African Union peacekeeping force deployed around Mogadishu. But they are barely effective as a fighting force beyond unleashing random artillery barrages on civilian areas when they come under fire.

Istanbul meeting

On Saturday, the Istanbul meeting, led by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, produced pledges of “full support” for the TFG by the 55 nations and 12 international organizations in attendance.

They concluded that “the re-establishment, training, equipping, payment and retention of Somali security forces is vital for long-term stability.”

None of this likely to prevent further Islamist advances in Mogadishu or produce an effective TFG military force capable of repulsing, let alone defeating, the insurgent army of 10,000-15,000 well-armed fighters.

Somalia has been in a state of perpetual clan warfare since 1991, when warlords toppled the dictator Mohammed Siad Barre.

Source: UPI.com

Who are in charge?

The only certain seems to be that the president Sheik Sharif Ahmed seems still to be the president. Concerning most of the other officials in the Somali government there seem to be big doubt.

For months there have been negotiations between a part of mix of clerics and from the Sufi sect and the Ethiopian supported warlords in Ahlu Sunna Waljame (ASW) in order to integrate ASW in the government. Significantly the decisive negotiations took place under Ethiopian monitoring in Addis Ababa. A main negotiator for the Somali government was- by the way – Sheik Sharif Aden at that time as well minister of finance and deputy prime minister.

According to the agreement between the two parts the warlords in ASW should take over important ministries and have posts of deputy ministers and also have part in the diplomatic representation of the government. As a consequence of this “power sharing plan” many ministers would have to lose their giving posts. Among others Sheik Yusuf Mohamed Siyade Indhaade in a period seems to have been sacked. In the news he was mentioned as the former state minister of defence.

But it seems that the “power dealing plan” was only made with a part of the Somali government and not all of the ministers and officials who don’t want to leave their posts. Also within the parliament there is opposition. Besides parts of ASW also is against it.

What the president concerns he seems to waver between supporting the speaker of the parliament in his opposition towards the prime minister Sharmarke who is from Puntland. First Ahmed joined the speaker and annonced that they would sack the prime minister. Then he changes his position and would in stead sack the speaker. He tried to calm the international society at the meeting in Istanbul by saying a new speaker will soon be elected. But according to Garowe Online from May 25 he will now again sack the PM.

To complicate the dispute further the leader of the Somali high courts had issued an order not to elect a new speaker. Furthermore the finance minister was accused of bribing the parliament to avoid an investigation in embezzlement the parliament was on its way to charge him for. Sheik Sharif Aden has now resigned from his posts as minister of finance and as deputy PM – because he wants to compete for the post as a speaker as he in fact was until he was sacked by the former president Abdullahi Yusuf,

Al-Shabab insurgents vow to seize presidential palace

“A senior Al-Shabaab official has on Monday urged his fighters to seize the control of Somalia’s presidential palace and ousted the African Union peacekeepers, which guard the palace, Radio Garowe reports.

Sheikh Ali Mohammed Hussein, Al-Shabab governor for Mogadishu said the fighters have already captured the northern districts and are few kilometers away from the palace.

“We are planning to carry out heavy attacks on Villa Somalia that houses top TFG leaders,” he said, adding, “there are absolutely nothing between us and the AMISOM because the so called government forces have fled. We are just 0.5 km from the palace.”

Somalia’s state minister for defence, Yussuf Inda’ade has confirmed the defeat of the government soldiers, claiming they were denied military wares to use in the fighting against the insurgents.

Heavy fighting between Al-Shabaab fighters and government troops over the control of northern districts have resulted the deaths of at least 26 people in the last 48 hours.

The fragile UN-backed government is holed in few blocks of Mogadishu whereas the rest of the country’s south central regions come under the control of insurgent groups”

Source Garowe Online May 25

Somalia Denies Presidential Palace Attack Report

In spite of what several news agencies reports and what Yusuf Mohamed Siyade Indhaade told the medias the “Somali government on Tuesday denied as “false and fabricated” media reports that there has been an attack by Islamist rebels on the Presidential Palace during this week’s renewed clashes in Mogadishu”, the Chinese news agency Xibhua wrote May 26.

“A statement from the Somali presidency strongly denied some media outlet reports that Islamist insurgents attacked the Presidential Palace, known as Villa Somalia, with mortars during the battles.

“A false report claiming that there was an attack in Villa Somalia where a dozen people were killed has been widely disseminated in the past two days,” said a statement obtained by Xinhua.

“There was no fighting or mortars landing at the Presidency and nobody died as a result,” it added.

“Fierce fighting between Islamist insurgents and Somali government forces backed by African Union peacekeepers based in Mogadishu this week left dozens of people mainly civilians dead or wounded.

“The Presidency refuted the insurgents’ claim that they will attack the Presidential Palace as “pure fantasy”, saying that “won’ t happen because the groups’ have been repeating the same stuff since January 2009.”

“Islamist fighters, who control much of south and centre of Somalia, carry out near daily attack on Somali government targets and African Union peacekeepers based in parts of the restive Somali capital, Mogadishu.”

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