Hizbul Islam and its rival, al Shabaab — branded by Washington as an al Qaeda proxy in the region — want to impose a strict version of Islamic sharia law in the Horn of Africa nation that has had no functional central government since 1991.
Their fighters and those of government-allied Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca have been involved in clashes for control of three towns in central Somalia.
“At least 138 people died and 344 others were injured in the last two weeks’ fighting in central Somalia,” Ali Yasin Gedi, the vice chairman of the Elman human rights group, told Reuters.
“The recent fighting between Ahlu Sunna, and al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam on one side has also displaced 63,000 people from Galgadud and Hiiraan regions.”
Ahlu Sunna, which is aligned to President Sheikh Shari Ahmed’s weak U.N.-backed administration, advocates a more moderate version of Islam.
It fought with Hizbul Islam insurgents in Baladwayne. Hizbul Islam also clashed with al Shabaab in Dhobley, a town near the border with Kenya.
Since the start of 2007, violence has killed at least 19,000 Somalis and displaced 1.5 million people.
The United Nation’s refugee agency said earlier this week the recent fighting in central and southern Somalia was sending more refugees into neighboring countries.
UNHCR said 3,000 Somalis were registered as refugees in Ethiopia in December and 4,175 had registered in Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp since December. It said the total number of Somali refugees in the region now stood at over 560,000.
(Editing by George Obulutsa and Giles Elgood)
Somalia is moving from failed to fragile state
UNITED NATIONS (AP) – Somalia is moving “from a failed state to a fragile state” but the government urgently needs international moral, financial and diplomatic support to strengthen its control and combat extremists, the top U.N. envoy said Thursday.
Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah criticized the international community for failing to take “effective action” to back the transitional government as it struggles to confront extremists determined to overthow it by force “either to maintain a permanent state of anarchy or to establish a military state.”
There is no “concrete commitment and a determined international policy towards Somalia and its present leadership,” he told the U.N. Security Council.
In addition, Ould-Abdallah said the “massive consensus of support for the government from the international community … has yet to be translated into the necessary material assistance.”
While donors pledged $213 million for Somalia at a conference in Brussels last April, he said, “what has been disbursed is too small to have had the desired impact.”
Ould-Abdallah called on the international community “to depart from past practices of uncoordinated efforts and individual diplomatic initiatives,” to fully support the government, work more closely with regional organizations and the African Union, and “address vigorously the role of the spoilers.”
“The government needs to be helped to gradually become more effective in delivering services to the population and a more able international partner,” he said. “Specifically, the international community should provide more vigorous moral, diplomatic and financial assistance,” Ould-Abdallah said. “Assistance delayed is assistance denied. In the face of the mounting danger, sitting on the fence is no longer an option.”
He said the Security Council should “encourage or pressurize” the foreign and domestic extremists to stop supporting violence.
“A clear and effective message, backed by concrete action, would demonstrate that those who fund the extremists, creating misery for innocent civilians, violating international laws including the widespread recruitment of child soldiers and threatening peace and stability in the whole region, will no longer enjoy impunity,” Ould-Abdallah said.
Somalia has not had an effective government since 1991 when warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other, plunging the country into chaos and anarchy. The transitional government, established in 2004, and an undermanned, poorly resourced African Union peacekeeping force have struggled to defend government buildings, the port and airport in the capital, Mogadishu against an offensive by Al-Shabab Islamic extremists and the allied Islamic Party.
“The crisis, which has become more than ever a tough challenge, can no longer be ignored,” Ould-Abdallah said. “Indeed the conflict is no longer local or even regional. It is global.”
Nonetheless, he said the government “has made significant progress, despite repeated armed assaults to overthrow it by externally funded extremists.”
He said the government’s recent accomplishments include establishing itself in the capital, Mogadishu, drawing up a budget for the first time in years, recruiting and training security forces, and remaining open to all Somalis who are ready for dialogue and reconciliation.
“After years of conflict the situation in Somalia will not change overnight,” Ould-Abdallah said. “However we are moving from a failed state to a fragile state.”
