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/ 25 January 2008

Islamist rebels conduct raid on Somali airfield

Islamist insurgents briefly seized control of Somalia’s biggest military airfield on Friday and looted weapons, witnesses and an Islamist commander said. Muktar Ali Robow, leader of the al-Shabab rebel militia, told a local radio station his forces also captured government troops during the raid on Baledogle, about 100km west of the capital, Mogadishu.

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/ 5 January 2008

Somali gunmen kidnap two Libyan diplomats

Somali gunmen kidnapped two Libyan diplomats in Mogadishu’s busy Bakara market on Saturday, a driver for the two men said. ”Ten men with pistols in their hands surrounded us. They seized the two diplomats and left with the car,” the driver, who declined to give his name for fear of reprisal, said.

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/ 26 December 2007

Somali police chief survives attack

Gunmen threw grenades at the home of the regional police chief in south-western Somalia, killing two of his grandchildren and a bodyguard while he escaped injury, authorities said on Tuesday. Seven other family members were wounded in the Monday-night attack, which police said was a failed assassination attempt.

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/ 2 December 2007

Somalia prime minister wants dialogue

Somalia’s new prime minister called on Sunday for dialogue with Islamist-led opponents to end an insurgency that a rights group says has killed nearly 6 000 civilians so far this year. In some of his first public comments on the conflict, Somalia’s new prime minister, Nur Hassan Hussein, said he was open to talks.

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/ 24 November 2007

Mortar barrage triggers Mogadishu clashes

Insurgents fired a barrage of mortars into an Ethiopian army camp in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on Friday, triggering heavy fighting, residents said. The clashes shattered a fortnight lull in the city after weeks of heavy fighting that had claimed dozens of lives, mainly of civilians, and displaced at least 200 000 people.

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/ 20 November 2007

A million Somalis have fled their homes

The number of Somalis uprooted by fighting in their own country has hit a ”staggering” one million, the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said 600 000 people are believed to have fled Somalia’s lawless capital, Mogadishu, since February.

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/ 12 November 2007

Troops hunt insurgents in emptying Somali capital

Somali and Ethiopian troops shut down Mogadishu’s main market in a search for Islamist insurgents on Sunday after fighting that has killed at least 60 people and driven tens of thousands from the Somali capital. Rights groups have criticised the Ethiopians for failing to distinguish between civilian and insurgent targets.

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/ 10 November 2007

Death toll mounts in Mogadishu

Ethiopian troops shelled suspected Islamist hideouts on Friday in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, where some of the worst clashes in months have left at least 43 dead in two days, many of them civilians. The escalating violence came as the Ethiopian army tried to flush out pockets of insurgents in southern districts of the Somali capital.

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/ 8 November 2007

Slain Ethiopian soldier dragged through streets

Civilians dragged the body of an Ethiopian soldier through the streets of Somalia’s capital on Thursday after fighting with insurgents killed a second soldier and civilian, witnesses said. In the grisly incident, more than 100 civilians stepped and spat on the scarred body as they dragged it for several kilometres on a pot-holed asphalt road.

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/ 5 November 2007

Large blasts target Ethiopian troop convoy

Two large blasts aimed at a convoy of Ethiopian troops heading toward the capital prompted soldiers to open fire on Monday. At least two Somalis were shot to death, witnesses said. The explosions south of Mogadishu could be heard a kilometre away, and ”shook all the buildings nearby”, resident Mohamed Ahmed said.

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/ 2 November 2007

Residents flee as battles rock Mogadishu

Battles broke out again in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on Friday killing at least one, wounding four and stoking the nation’s humanitarian crisis after nearly 90 000 people fled days of fighting earlier this week. Ethiopian forces supporting Somalia’s interim government are trying to crush Islamist-led rebels.

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/ 23 October 2007

Somalia releases UN food agency chief

Somali authorities on Tuesday released the local head of the World Food Programme, who was seized nearly a week ago when government forces stormed a United Nations compound in Mogadishu. "He is safely back in the office. He was brought by some government officers as well as local UN staffers," a UN official said in Mogadishu.

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/ 19 October 2007

Fighting rocks Mogadishu

Somali government forces on Friday battled Islamist insurgents in southern Mogadishu, killing two civilians, witnesses said. Rival forces pounded each other with heavy artillery, forcing many residents to remain indoors while others fled to safety, they said.

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/ 17 October 2007

Somali forces storm UN compound

Up to 60 Somali intelligence officers stormed a United Nations compound in Mogadishu on Wednesday and seized the World Food Programme’s local chief of operations at gunpoint. WFP said it was forced to suspend food distribution, which started on Monday, to more than 75 000 people in the capital Mogadishu.

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/ 9 October 2007

Somali PM strikes deal with Mogadishu clan leaders

Somalia’s prime minister has reached a truce with Mogadishu’s dominant clan, some of whose fighters had supported Islamist-led insurgents in battles with government troops and Ethiopian forces earlier this year. Hawiye clan elders met Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi amid tight security on Monday in the capital, which has been rocked by insecurity since January.

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/ 5 October 2007

Gunmen release hijacked plane in Somalia

Gunmen released a cargo plane and its Russian crew that had been hijacked in northern Somalia, authorities said on Friday. Muse Gelle Yusuf, the governor of the northern Bari region where the plane was taken on Thursday, said that clan elders had managed to convince the two young gunmen to release the plane and its cargo.