February 8, 2010
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Press review: Somalia, fighting in the capital and tensions on the borders
Source: Reuters, NYTimes, The Wall Street Journal
Tension is still high in Mogadishu, hardly controlled by the fragile Western-backed administration of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, where rebels from al Shabaab group attacked government bases and AMISOM peacekeeping troops. An exchange of mortar shells between Somali government forces and rebels killed at least nine civilians and injured 14 others.
On January 26 al Shabaab and the smaller Kismayu-based Kamboni rebel group said they had put their differences behind them.”We have agreed to join the international jihad of al Qaeda … We have also agreed to unite al Shabaab and Kamboni mujahideen to liberate the Eastern and Horn of Africa community who are under the feet of minority Christians,” the statement said.
The statement, written in Somali and Arabic, is believed to be the first explicit confirmation of what U.S. and Somali government have long suspected: Militants in one of Africa’s least stable places are sharing resources and merging agendas. A Somali government spokesman declined to comment on the statement from Al Shabaab. An African Union official dismissed the statement as a “non-event,” given that the AU already assumed the two groups were working together.
The (Ras)Kamboni rebels control territory near the Kenyan border and used to be allied with another rebel group known as Hizbul Islam.
Tensions are also growing in the in the drought-ridden region, where jobs are scarce and both of Somalia’s warring factions have been trawling Kenyan villages, seeking to recruit young fighters. Kenya has increased security on its porous desert border with Somalia ahead of an expected offensive by government forces there that could prompt hardline Islamist rebels to try and cross the frontier. “We have deployed more troops and increased patrols along the border because the threat from the other side is higher now,” Winston Murungi, district commissioner of Lagdera, told AlertNet in an interview near the border.
On February 7 Ethiopian troops in armoured vehicles crossed into two border towns in south central Somalia and seized the family of a man with links to al Shabaab insurgents, residents said.
The Ethiopian military officially withdrew in January last year.
Officials in Addis Ababa routinely deny that Ethiopian soldiers are on Somali soil, although they say they are providing security advice and training for Somalia’s forces.
Photo credit: oufoufsworld
Written by: SID
Filed Under: Conflict, Somalia and The Horn
Tags: al Qaeda, al Shabaab, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mogadishu, Somalia
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